Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Radiation Completed

After (1) trying every medication known to help decrease saliva production; (2) ligating (tying off) the lower salivary glands; and (3) completing a year and a half of botox injections with limited results, and almost two years after we first met with a radiation oncologist to discuss radiating Jack's salivary glands ... Jack finally had the radiation treatment today. Radiation is a treatment of last resort other than surgically removing the glands (which is a heck of a lot more painful than radiation). Jack was a trooper through the whole thing. He had to be in the room alone for about a half hour. They had a camera in the room and we could see him on a monitor, but I wasn't comfortable with him being in there by himself and not being able to see his face - so I requested a pulse-ox, which they quickly provided. Being able to see his numbers throughout the treatment made me feel better. Everyone treated Jack well and they even gave me a little gift when we finished (I guess they felt bad for the scheduling snafu a couple weeks ago). We should see maximum results within two weeks. Wish us luck!

Here are some pictures post treatment (after the radiation mask was removed):



Happy to have the mask off!


Tomorrow morning Eric has a well-check with the pediatrician. Eric hasn't had a well check since he was a year old (who's got time for well-checks?) I'm only taking him in because he needs vaccinations for school. There are several vaccines I won't agree to give him -- a couple of the newer ones. However, I'm okay with the ones that have been around since I was a kid. When we explained to Eric what vaccines he needed and why, he - naturally - wanted all the details about the diseases that he could get if he didn't get the vaccine. I suppose he wanted to weigh the pros and cons before he agreed to this! Tomorrow should be interesting .........

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good to see Jack's sweet face. I hope the treatment was a success. Have a great rest of your week.

Anonymous said...

Glad Jack is through this, and hope you start seeing the results soon. He is such a trooper, going through that alone.
Eric is so funny, have you given him all the gory details of the diseases yet? Good luck tomorrow.
xx

Anonymous said...

Jack looks pretty okay with all this. I'm sure he's glad it doesn't involve surgery!

Eric is such a corker! I'm sure he'll make an informed decision! :)

Cindy said...

What'd ya get?;-) Looking forward to hear how this treatment works out. Glad it wasn't too bad for Jack.

Anonymous said...

Ann -

I hope Jack gets the results he needs! I'm glad to read that it all came together after appointment battles earlier this month.

Happy Thanksgiving!

- Betty