Selesai sudah treatment RT Iman

Iman completed his RT treatment today 02/02/2011, after 6 weeks of treatment (to be exact 31 times) with 3 phases of RT.. All involving his overall head and spinal cord.. Alhamdulillah he still active like always but a bit skinny, cos he lost few kilos due to this treatment.. definitely due to poor of appetite.. this is his picture after 25th days of RT,,

Radiation Theraphy (RT) - what doctor explain, it just like x-ray but with higher dose which precisely aims at the treated area, normally takes 10 - 15 minutes to complete, 5 days of treatment per week.. Before the actual RT, iman's MRI result is used to determine the extensive of the RT.. the RT people will do the planning including measuring iman's body, his head mask, marking and etc to ensure the accurate areas are properly targeted. The planning tooks 1 1/2 hours, biasala iman cry all the way but without sedation he manage to do the planning within a day,, thanks to the choclate given by Mr Choo..

Anyway, from my observation there were few side effects from this treatment of which includes falling hair and skin darkening of the irridiated area..

Some of the side effects are temporary such as vomitting and nausea (iman vomits at least once a day), acdg to the radiologist it will gone once the treatment is over. He develop late side effect such as falling hair (iman's hair started to fall by 3rd week of RT).. There could be permanent damage such as growth disorder (he may not be as tall as he should be) or hearing problem,,, but i really pray that it wont happen to iman.. pls pray for iman also okay..

I've listing down here the do's and don't during RT session which could be usefull to anyone whose going to undergo RT treatment  (this is actually from the RT staff and booklet available at the RT centre)..

a) use lukewarm water and avoid any soap at the treated area

b) avoid rubbing / scratching (Iman sgt2 suka menggaru kepala dia,, gatal sgt agaknya, gatal agaknya,, susah jgk nak elak dari dia menggaru kan...)

c) No powder / lotion / baby oil - if the skin really dry pls request special cream prescribe by the radiologist only

d) avoid sun exposure - the treated area become darker than the normal skin.. so dont make it worse by exposing urself to sun

e) eat high protein and high calories diet (Iman eat every 2 hours, h/ever the portion is smaller than normal), Iman loves egg so much which high in protein and calories as well, so as much as possible i include egg in any of his menu,,

according to doctor if iman eat well, he can tolerate with the side effects better.. the 5th and 6th weeks were the worse as iman really lose his appetite, thus his blood count really bad at that time,, but we gave him multivitamin with lysin to boost his appetite,so by the end of 6 weeks he gain weight (around 500 gm) though sikit, but most importantly his blood count back to nomal, hooray...

Now after the RT completed,,  iman must eat everytime (at least to get back his weight),, i'm taking care of iman full time so no excuse lar kan.. lagipun he must gain weight to prepare for his next treatment i.e. 4 cycles of chemo plak.. so pasni byk lar blog2 resipi yg akan i terjah.. wish me luck.. yang plg ptg doakan iman sihat dan dipermudahkan semuanya.. Amin..