See how nature — trees, flowers, grass

— grows in silence; see the stars,the moon and the sun,

how they move in silence. . . .
We need silence to be able to touch souls.
............................ Mother Teresa

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Mitt första intryck av strålbehandlingens väntrum var förfärligt

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“The noise, my dear! And the people!”

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TV:n på vrålläge – ingen möjlighet att sitta någon annanstädes. Jag vet inte om de andra patienterna lyssnade och tittade – de satt alla med sina privata rullgardiner neddragna. De enda som talade var två damer – som jag tror var mor och dotter – vilka var där med sin make/far. Den yngre kvinnan behandlade mannen som mindre vetande – vilket han uppenbarligen inte var. (För övrigt är min bestämda uppfattning att man inte heller ska behandla mindre vetande som mindre vetande!)
Kanske har man dämpat volymen till nästa gång – men för säkerhets skull har jag letat fram ett par antifoner.

Rustad för ett väntrum


Ämne: Radiation therapy


Em,
Below the website for the RadiaCare line of products, specifically
designed for people getting radiation. I find the doctors tend to not mention the need to protect your skin and my patients often present with nasty burns after a few weeks. The skin damage can continue after radiation, as well, so start taking care of it immediately. This product line has been recommended to me by a couple of wound care nurses and may be available locally. If not, you can order it via the Internet. The skin usually needs to be clean during radiation itself so these are for after each treatment. Just double check with the doctor about using them.

http://www.carringtonlabs.com/moms/products.html

You've probably already checked out the internet but here are a
couple of informative sites where I get information to give my patients.
The first is the National Cancer Institute's booklet on radiation. It is
accurate, patient oriented information:

http://www.nci.nih.gov/cancer_information/doc_img.aspx?viewid=32136103-0800-407b-83c8-28fd87267753

This is the Oncology Nursing Society's patient education area for
radiotherapy. I believe you can access it but if it requires a membership number, let me know and I'll dig out mine:

http://www.ons.org/xp6/ONS/Education.xml/PIER.xml/Treatment.xml/Radiation.
xml

This should give you some reading material for the next few days!
Be aware that you are likely to experience fatigue after a few weeks of radiation. It's normal, may cause anemia, and usually continues for a while after treatment is complete. It is highly variable among patients, both in terms of onset and severity but may be complicated by your underlying neurological problems. However, maybe you'll be the idiosyncratic patient who gets perky during treatment, you never know.
Good luck and feel free to ask me any questions about what you read.
Again, it's not my speciality but I can always ask someone who works in
the field.
Love, Mae

All miseries derive from not being
able to sit quietly in a room alone.
..................... Pascal