Radiation overdose?

Factual Questions
1

I’m on radiation therapy, and get two zaps of radiation in each visit, one aimed toward the chest, and another toward to the back. They don’t always come in the same order. Sometimes I get the chest first, sometimes the back first.

Anyway, this past Friday, the second dose seemed to take at least twice as long as any other. I didn’t time it. It just felt interminably long.

When the nurse trainee, a nice young man, came out from behind the shielding, I asked him about it. He was not at all surprised by my query and said that when the hospital’s power is under high demand, the machine (a Varian, if that means anything) might emit less powerful radiation which is then made up for by stretching out the time of dosage. (Sorry for such high-tech terminology. :slight_smile: )

I let it go, but later on, I seemed to have gotten a little more fatigued than usual. Went for some Chinese takeout, but couldn’t, as it turned out, eat much. And my excellent appetite has been constant through therapy.

So then I called Radiation Oncology, to get the scoop from some higher authority there. This turned out to be the technologist who swore up and down that I get the same amount of radiation each and every time. She didn’t even try to address the prolonged zapping period.

I still wonder. Chest, is a little red in a sort of butterfly pattern; back feels sun burnt but doesn’t look it.

In future, I’m gonna stopwatch the dose time, just to get some numbers on it. I have two timers and will start keeping tabs of both.

Afterthought. That Friday was an especially pleasant morning, nice and warm Maybe the hospital had a big power call for air conditioning.

My appetite returned to normal on Saturday.

Am I unwise- okay, stupid - to even wonder about this stuff?

2

I would guess that they use a “dosimeter” to measure the amount of radiation that you are getting, and a Google search turns up a number of hits. I doubt that they are intentionally over-dosing you.

3

No, no no. I never even considered intentional overdosing.

But if they use a dosimeter on me, I have never seen it.

4

I would imagine that the beam power is measured by the machine, before it hits the target (you). They would need to keep the distance constant to achive repeatable results.

5

It’s not unreasonable to wonder about this. I suggest that you ask the clinic to explain how they measure the dosage. They should be happy to do so.

6

Barn Owl , how long have you been receiving radiation? I ask because when my husband was getting nuked by Radiation Oncology, it took a while for his skin symptoms to develop ( read: burns.) IIRC, the effects are cumulative and don’t show up all at once, including the fatigue, the esophagitis, the hair loss and taste perception changes.

I don’t know how they do it but there is some way they are keeping up with how much radiation you’ve been getting. I’m sure they will explain if you ask them.

Oh, and I have a good joke you can play on your friends if you want to hear it. :cool:

7

Tomorrow will be my 11th session of 33 scheduled. I’ll lie low for a bit. Don’t want
to irritate my radiators.

And yes, please tell me the joke!! :smiley:

8

My husband’s comment:

Hi, I actually work in medical imaging and simulation. I’ve written software in the past that sends planning information to external beam systems (such as Varian).

Varian machines work in different energy modes, commonly 6MV, 10MV, and 15MV. Lower energies can be used to deliver the same quality plan as higher energies, but would take longer to deliver the same amount of dose (roughly linear compared to the energy level). They would be more likely to cause skin irritation, however.

Your doctor and the medical physicist should be notified of the skin irritation, and you may want to make sure your doctor knows about the planning change. It sounds like standard opposed-beam conformal therapy, which is a very well-established treatment style.

The technician running the machine typically doesn’t know all the details of the machine, but all external beam systems (linear accelerators, or ‘linacs’ for short) measure dose in ‘machine units’ up in the head where the machine actually generates the x-rays.

9

My thanks to you and your husband, dangermom.

I’ll be sure to mention the burn tomorrow. (Like I inferred above, I was going to let things ride until your post came along.)

10

Cub Mistress

Where’s the joke??? :cool: :cool: :cool:

I went to bed very early last night and lying there, worried that you might post it and then with no response from me you might think I got angry or whatever. I’m glad this didn’t happen.

Anyway…

11

Sorry,** Barn Owl**, I’m in the last week of nursing school and studying for the final took precedence. :slight_smile:

Here’s the joke. You need to buy one of those chemical glowsticks small enough to fit in your mouth, yet large enough to give off a goodly amount of light. (I bet you see where this is going, don’t you?) For a day or so, you play up to someone how the radiation is making you feel a little funny. You are in a darkish place, maybe outside at night, the glowstick is secretly activated and put in your mouth. Your friend inquires about something, anything, and when you speak and greenish-yellow light comes out of your mouth, I can almost guarantee you somebody is going to squeal like a girl. My husband pulled this on several I-ain’t-scared-of-nothing beefy cops and got great results.

Oddly enough, I think we found the glowsticks in the sporting goods section of Wal-mart. Anyway, it’s a good trick!

12

Beautiful!!

I’ll do it.