1 down, 34 more to go

Had my first SRT today, I was very grateful for surviving the shuttle bus ride from the RV park to the Mays Clinic (MD Anderson) and thought that would be the worst part of the day and it was.

For those interested, the session went like this:

- check in at the main desk in the RO area
- directed back to the radiation waiting area where I scan my card in
- Toby pops out from somewhere after a minute and starts showing me the process
- go to the men's 'locker' room, undress, put on two gowns, one facing forward the other one aft
- grab a towel and wait for the nice young lady to ultrasound your bladder
- bladder scanned and she says I'm close but not close enough. Two more cups of water (I'm going to pop in a minute!)
- then thankfully she said "you're too full, let out half a cup" - yippee!
- after ten minutes they walk me back to the multi-million dollar equipment area (they have SIX Varian machines) and show me the control room and then on to the table to get nuked
- x-rays taken then a few minutes of this giant thing hovering around my abdomen and I'm done

After my RARP earlier in the year I started drinking lots of water and kept it up. I usually drink about 40 oz of water after breakfast so I keep well hydrated which worked in my favor for the procedure. All I needed to do was to drink about 20 oz about 30-45 minutes before and I was good to go. There was a fellow in the men's 'locker' room when I got there that didn't have a full enough bladder so he was working on more fluids. He was still there after I was all done and he couldn't believe my 'luck.'

Turns out he doesn't like to drink water, wasn't hydrated enough so he paid the price by hydrating there.

John,

I just finished my 9th session today, and so far no problems. I am in and out within 5 minutes.

Good Luck to you John,
Had my fourth treatment this morning and I agree, the session is a breeze. The full bladder is the hardest part but also the most important one!

Thanks John. This is great info! I'll be sure to show my wife. I'm in the process of scheduling a consultation with Dr. Deborah Kuban at MDA, just as soon as my surgeon can transfer the files. It seems I'll be following your path based on my recent psa activity. My doc recommended another CT/bone scan before SRT. Both came back negative again so at least that's good news. With a 0.022 psa I really didn't expect anything, but it did raise the anxiety level a bit. Did you or any others duplicate the scans before SRT?
Another John.

JFL1957 said...
Thanks John. This is great info! I'll be sure to show my wife. I'm in the process of scheduling a consultation with Dr. Deborah Kuban at MDA, just as soon as my surgeon can transfer the files. It seems I'll be following your path based on my recent psa activity. My doc recommended another CT/bone scan before SRT. Both came back negative again so at least that's good news. With a 0.022 psa I really didn't expect anything, but it did raise the anxiety level a bit. Did you or any others duplicate the scans before SRT?
Another John.

The Doc never ordered a scan which we thought would have been indicated but based on my overall situation he didn't think it necessary. My track was clearly defined with a high risk Decipher result and a positive node, your situation is a little more nebulous.

At any rate, you'll be in great hands at MDA.