Jacks Radiotherapy week 1

 

Jack started his radiotherapy on Monday 20^th July and was in the words of the radiology staff “a star”.

Everyday he has to be at the Churchill Hospital at 9am in Oxford to undergo his treatment for the next 6 weeks. This involves Jack lying face down on a table with his face in a specially moulded mask to keep his head very still.

 

 

Once Jack is comfortable and the nurses are happy with his position he then has a mesh hood put over his head. This hood serves two purposes from what we have learned and watched. The first being that it helps to keep his head dead still and the other is they are able to use this to put sticky tabs on to line up and map out the exact place they want to zap him.

 

 

When we first saw this and what they were doing to our little boy horrified us beyond belief. Whilst Jack is in the radiology room being set up and during his treatment we have to stand outside and watch the procedure on 2 monitors in the control area just outside the room. The first day was expected to be full of anxieties on both Jacks part and ours as parents.

The professionalism of the staff is outstanding. Everything they do, not only makes Jack at ease but also us as parents too. Each step was explained to Jack inside the room and to us outside watching on the monitors with horror on our faces.

Everything that has happened to Jack through this ordeal has amazed us with the way he has dealt with each challenge that he been placed in front of him.

Within 10 minutes he was up on the table face in mask and hood fitted without a care in the world (and Abba playing in the background). We were both standing staring at these 2 monitors with lumps in our throats and tears in our eyes. These were mainly emotional acts of pride not pity.

Monday Jack had 3 zaps of Radiotherapy which were one to each side of his head and one to his spine. Also he had x-ray pictures taken of his head and spine. The actual zapping treatment only takes around 15 seconds but the preparing him and putting him in the exact position takes quite a bit longer. From the time we got in the hospital to the time we left on Monday was 45 minutes.

 

 

The picture above was taken from the monitor in the control area and this is what we can see.

 

After we had our first encounter with Radiotherapy we went to the John Radcliff Hospital for a meeting with the Oncologist doctor who sat us down and explained what is going to happen after the Radiotherapy has finished. Jack will get 6 weeks off after this has finished Then he starts an intense course of chemotherapy which we will explain later on in other updates.

On Monday an hour after his treatment Jack suffered a headache and after having Calpol it cleared up and he seemed to be ok. The following day after his treatment around about the same time he suffered another headache and when we got home and gave him some Calpol he was also sick. The hospital gave us some anti sickness medicine on Tuesday to be taken an hour before he starts his treatment and touch wood he hasn’t had any problems for the rest of the week.

Now that Jack knows the procedure when we get to the hospital the time we spend in there has halved with him hopping up on the table and getting on with it.

 

 

 

After his treatment on Friday we had to go over to the JR (John Radcliffe) for his first shot of Vincristine Chemotherapy which he will have every Friday for 8 weeks.

We were told about the side affects of this drug, one of which, in time will make his hair fall out. This will grow back after his treatment has finished. We sat Jack down and explained this to him and again he astonished us by brushing it off with a “whatever”. After his Chemo shot we were expecting him to be a bit drowsy or some sort of reaction. Nothing seems to have changed to him as yet apart from he seems to have more energy.

 

So to sum up this update Jack has done us all proud and he still has that cute cheeky smile on his face.