View Single Post
Old 10-10-2006, 01:51 PM   #5
Susan2
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 87
WBR - whole brain radiation.

In May, they found 11 spots on my MRI. No symptoms. Like you, they wanted to do wbr. Because of the scary stuff that I had read, I initially refused. I went for a second opinion with the same answer. I did research and then went back to my radiation oncologist. I told the dr. that I wanted to do everything possible to reduce the possibility of compromised brain function. I was going to be around a long time and would need it.

Working with another radiation researcher, they came up with a modified plan. This plan spread the radiation over 24 days instead of 14. They used a lower dose one at which the dr. said that the brain could recover from in 6 hours. For the areas with spots, they did the radiation the entire 24 days. For the areas without spots, they only did radiation for a portion of the time.

During the radiation, I was on daily Temodar. The Temodar was only during radiation.

3 weeks after the final radiation treatment, I had another MRI. Some of the spots were gone, some were smaller and the remainder unchanged. Then, I had a subsequent MRI a couple of weeks ago. Everything except one tiny spot is completely gone. The dr. believes that the spot is a scar.

I have had mild fatigue - nap in the afternoon. I have noticed no decreased mental or physical functioning. I did lose my hair, but it has started growing back.

I know that this is a very difficult decision. I wish you the

Best of everything,
Susan
Susan2 is offline   Reply With Quote