Gamma Procedure + PHOTO

[StephN]

Just sitting here waiting out a stormy day and thinking of all your responses to my Gamma procedure.
We are here to help each other, and maybe a little more personal info on the actual experience may be helpful to someone in the future. I have also been using links for these posts for my other friends, family, medical support for their information and peace of mind. They all start checking the site and it is getting passed to other BC women this way!

The actual machine is called a Leksell Gamma Knife C, which uses the Leksell GammaPlan Wizard 5.34 (sounds more like Sci-Fi all the time!) It was just upgraded a few months ago. There was an attending team of three oncologists/operators during the whole treatment.

"Look, Ma - No hands." The team quipped when this photo was snapped.

You see me lying on my back, engaged into the helmet with the headframe, and ready for treatment to begin. I was lightly strapped on to the table around my hips, and otherwise free to move if I wished. They braced my shoulders and put some eggcrate foam padding to make me comfy. When the table moved, the door behind my head opened and I slid in up to about my waist.

The interior is very roomy as it must accommodate all the gear around your head. Inside you see a rectangle shape with steel plates on top and the sides. That is all. From inside I could look out and see all the rest of the room, including a monitor camera. So this is not at all claustrophobic like a regular MRI or tight-fitting PET scan. Reminded me more of the nice room where I had my radiation treatments after chemo.

There was also two-way communication and I could have stopped the treatment if I needed for any reason. They would have come to do what I needed or let me use the restroom, then resume. That was not necessary, and I had some water when they changed the helmet for the second tumor.

Since the whole thing is virtaully soundless, it is a good idea to create your own environment with a nice choice of music that you already know makes you feel good.

Sometimes we don't get a chance to "see" where "things" will be done to us, and I hope this little snapshop gives a good idea of my actual patient experience as it happened.

Steph,
You R amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You are a true survivor!
Love,
Al and Linda

[Lolly]

Ditto from me, it's just incredible to see these shots and know you're up and at 'em already, as I can attest!
Love, Lolly

Thanks for being so thorough on how the procedure is done. The picture looks so scary though, inspite of your explanation of how simple it all was. You are so brave. I hope I will face challenges that may lie ahead with your kind of courage and grace.
May the Lord continue to bring good healing to your body from the top of your head to the bottom of your toes.
Hugs, Lola

Hi again Steph,
I'm wondering if Joe can archive this in a special place so people who are about to undergo this procedure have easy access your journal (for lack of a better name) I can see how this could be extremely helpful and stress reducing.
Al

A great idea Al. Who knows who will need this for later. Great job done Steph. Hugs, Sandy

[StephN]

Glad you are not finding that photo too freaky!
Actually it puts me in mind of our visit one year ago to THIS WEEK to the Kennedy Space Center and seeing all those astronaut capsules!
More like "ready for blastoff!"

We took that trip just after getting my clean results from annual brain MRI.

Head frame: - my husband reminded me that they said it was made out of a special Titanium - so had to be very light. My tiny wounds are just little reddish spots above my eyes and there has been no sign of bruising from the pressure.

Hi Stephanie, glad to hear your Gamma Knife went well. I wish I could say the same for me. I am still suffering the same symptoms and probably more intense then before, lightheadness, dizziness, unstable on my feet. The neurosurgeon said sometimes it take time to see results. I don't know if it is Decadron doing this or Xeloda because I started that again. I saw onc. yesterday. She told me the same thing. It takes time and sometimes comes back after a while. They did tell me to start tapering off of Decadron which I have. Have they decreased your Decadron also. Keep me posted. Thanks.

[StephN]

Al and others -

Joe wants to do a more thorough page on some of these procedures, and since there are not many who get photos (the procedure team takes them for their records, so the one with me in the headframe is a Poloroid from them). Otherwise we had our digital for the others.

After the HER2support Annual Meeting there willl be more time for Joe to get to work on pulling my posts or for me to rewrite them and string them together and add a couple more photos. I think they have some of Chris as well, so look for a good page on this procedure from patient standpoint.