Radiation Therapy - Day 1

Today was Travis' first day of radiation therapy. He said he did very well. The hardest part for him was lying in the same position for such a long period of time and leaving the house at 5:30 am. This therapy session was longer than the others, 30 min. They scanned the position his head was in twice before they began, just to make sure that they were giving the treatment in the exact place they wanted too. Each therapy session after the initial one will be 15 min.
Travis said that at the beginning of each treatment (there were five) he had a whiff of a funny smell. He describe the smell as if you had taken a large sniff of Clorox. It briefly tingled in his nose and passed quickly. Dr. Mahajan said that this side effect was very common. He also said that even though he had his eyes closed he could see a bright blue light, like a welder's torch. After talking to my mom, she said that the light he sensed he saw was not really a light, but something called "scattered radiation light". This is a common symptom that many brain patients have where the eye detects the radiation beams the brain is receiving as a bright light.
During the treatment they play music and even encouraged him to make a CD to listen to of his favorite songs during the treatment. I am going to try and make him a variety of CD's to listen to, so if you want to send your requests via email or in a post to the blog I would love to add your songs to a CD!
Overall the session went very well. As of right now he is still scheduled for 7:00 am sessions, but the technicians are still looking to try and find a time that would be better for us.

Tomorrow he will have another session of radiation therapy, a meeting with the neuro-oncologist and physical therapy, so it will be a long day.

"I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 3:14