Radiation: Protons on Hold

Three days and no radiation.

What’s a gal to do?

Photon therapy.

If you thought photon therapy was what I’ve been getting, you’re not the only one. Took me some minutes to figure out photons and protons are not the same thing.

I am unsure of the technical differences between the two; what I remember is that protons impact less of the internal organs. Photons are what most radiation patients get (protons are special to Mayo).

The radiation oncology nurse left me a message in my Mayo portal:

I’ll be doing photon therapy until the protons are back up. I asked about the timing – they’ll update my portal each day with photon therapy as it happens. Tomorrow’s proton therapy was scheduled for 7:45 a.m., so that’s for sure canceled. Photon therapy will be at 6:30 p.m. instead.

I checked Friday’s schedule, and I’ve got both proton and photon therapy on it, so I’m thinking that’ll how it will go.

It’s not ideal but I like continuing therapy rather than just work “from home” without two curly-haired turkeys running around. It was three days without a purpose, and it felt pretty weird.