It will do your head in!

Sorry for the confronting photo but I needed to explain the recent break in transmission. As some of you are aware I have been on a rollercoaster journey since Feb last year battling a war against brain cancer. No history, perfectly healthy non smoking non drinking just turned 40 year and then diagnosed. There is too much medical drama for one blog entry but suffice to say not even a five hour craniotomy, 7 weeks of combined radiation and chemo followed by another 6 months of chemo last year did the job. A second craniotomy occurred in Feb this year with the devastating news there was more tumour in post operative checkup at the end of Feb.

For the last week I have been undergoing stereo tactic radiation surgery ( I let you google that if you want to know more) . To do this you need to be immobilised- don't want those dangerous radiation beams hitting the wrong spot and causing blindness! They used to do it by screwing a metal brace into your forehead ( after administering local anaesthetic) but now they custom make the mask.

I thought you might like to see some of the pics from when my face mask was built for this treatment . The strips can see underneath are heated to 70 deg and stretched into place as a brace under the mesh cover. Yes it is quite warm going on your face! I had to wait for them to cool aided by the technician who placed damp towels on my face. The top layer has tiny air holes but being constricted like that is not pleasant especially when the nose and mouth are covered and you can feel and taste the warm plastic against your lips. Again it had to cool and the whole process took an hour. I then had to have a CT scan wearing the mask. This mask has a full back which was also made by a mould ( which is why my hair is in a hair net) . ie my head is fully covered front and back during treatment. This clips into the front half you can see and both sections are hooked into the radiation machine to immobilise you. Each of the three sessions was around an hour duration with the usual side effects ( nausea, brain swelling, fatigue, hair loss etc) and the 20% chance of permanent damage to my eyesight as they went very close to the optic nerve. So far so good but the damage can be delayed up to 3 months so keep your fingers crossed.

Yes - there was no mouthpiece/opening and while there are holes in in the mesh when you are anxious and already hyperventilating you really don't get full oxygen intake. The mask is that tight that you can't move your chin to lick your lips . Sure you can open your eyes but the view is not clear. You can see light and outlines but no definition/detail.

I promise that the next post will return to regular non medical programming! Thanks to everyone for their concern and best wishes. Now that I am getting stronger I will be back checking out and commenting on your blogs regularly again.