Radiation

I have recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and have had a lumpectomy. 16 treatments of higher dose radiation (rather than 33)are to be scheduled soon. I am to have my PM checked before during and after the treatments are done.
I just wondered if anyone has recently undergone this treatment and how they felt. Did it cause any complications with your PM and how did you feel?

3 Comments

I disagree .....

by donr - 2014-11-12 03:11:09

...w/ Pacer Rep. Here's why: Any semiconductor (Read that as transistor) will be affected if the radiation total dose or intensity of the beam is high enough. If a PM were to be hit by the center of the therapy beam where the intensity is greatest, there is a darned high probability that irreversible damage will be done.

I used Google & asked for "Cancer Radiation therapy effect on pacemakers" & got a ton of hits.

Here is the BEST & most understandable of the lot:

http://informahealthcare.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02841860701678779

According to this author, Kate's cardio/oncologist is doing the right thing by monitoring the device.

Here's MY experience w/ Rad therapy - for prostate cancer, not for Breast cancer. However, my wife faced rad therapy for breast cancer, so we had a follow-on discussion of the hazards to a pm from radiation.

I did my therapy at the Emory University Winship Cancer Center in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Realizing that the prostate gland is about two feet from my PM, we went into it with an approach that there was no hazard to my PM. Being an Electrical Engineering nerd, I asked my oncologist if he'd ever done a prostate cancer on a patient w/ PM. NO, he had not, so he'd never had the question asked. So I had him bring out the predicted graphics that showed the exposure intensity fields surrounding my Prostate. Now the prostate is about the size of a walnut. His goal was to catch everything out to 1/4 inch beyond the gland in all directions. They used seven portals - that means the radiation machine revolved about the head-toe centerline of my body & stopped at seven positions to irradiate the gland. I looked at those graphics & asked the following question: What is the margin distance from the beam to tissue that gets essentially zero radiation. His answer - 1/4 inch. This was using the gold standard of rad therapy in 2003-4, called IMRT - Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy. That system had the capability of shaping the beam very accurately & very precisely.

Bottom line - our assumption that it was safe for my PM was correct - nothing further than 1/4 inch from my prostate received significant radiation.

Fast FWD to this yr & wife facing need for Rad Therapy. We met w/ the Radiation Oncologist at another hospital & lo & behold, he had done his fellowship under my oncologist at Emory & we had missed meeting by a matter of days back in 2004. We talked extensively about the character of machinery today & he said it is an order of magnitude better than 10 yrs ago. Since Wife does NOT have a cardio PM, she faced no problems.

Kate: here's the discussion you should have w/ your rad oncologist. If you have not had it already. Read the link I gave you first, even though you may not understand all or even any of it.

1) Ask him to show you the "Portals" he/she plans to use to take care of your breast, MORE, get him to SHOW you each one using a ruler or pointer of some sort to show you the path of the radiation. You must see EVERY one of them to see if it passes near or through your PM.

2) Ask him what the beam will look like - just aimed at small targets or will it be irradiating the entire breast area. Specifically how wide horizontally & vertically it will be at each portal.

3) If it appears that it will pass close to or directly through your PM, start asking about its intensity.

I will guarantee you that you will feel like pure crap after a few doses & it will get worse as time goes on. Wife & I spent lot of time in waiting rooms w/ all types of cancer patients & we constantly exchanged notes on how we felt. They should give you some sort of cream to smear on your skin before each treatment to cut down skin burns at the entrance & exit sites of each portal. Use it - it works.

You will PROBABLY not feel nauseous. BUT - you will feel fatigued. You may start feeling it by the third treatment. Perhaps the second - probably NOT the first. Chat up the others in the waiting room. They will be a lot of help.

IF all of you in the waiting room lean on one another like tepee poles you will survive it much better & morale will be higher. I promise you that Napoleon was 1000% correct when, in 1806 he said "In Rad therapy, the mental is to the physical as three is to one." Actually, he did not say that - he said it about "battle" but it also applies to Rad Therapy. I recommend the following attitude - each day say to yourself "Self, you only have one more of these to put up with." If you cannot tolerate the next treatment, you'll never make it to the last.

The best to you in the ordeal you face.

Donr

Doesn't affect it

by PacerRep - 2014-11-12 10:11:02

I've never seen a complication, having the rep check it 3 times for every dose is uderly absurd.

I wish you the best of luck

I didn't explain myself clearly!

by Lady Kate - 2014-11-12 10:11:45

My PM will be checked before day 1, approx day 8 and then after day 16!!!

You know you're wired when...

Your pacemaker receives radio frequencies.

Member Quotes

Try to concentrate on how you’re able to be active again and feel normal, rather than on having a machine stuck in your body.