Dr. Poppy is Tucker’s main Radiologist, he’s a great guy. The meeting was very, well, it was a roller coaster of emotions, to be honest. Dr. Poppy explained that Tucker is going to get 16 days of radiation, 10 days on both his brain & spine, and 6 days extra on his brain. We will officially start our day 1 on this coming Tuesday after the holiday. First off the Dr talked about the exact places Tucker will be receiving radiation, and the only concerning part to this (aside from the obvious BRAIN radiation) is when you radiate the spinal column you also get radiation on everything in the “path” of the spinal column…. So Tucker esophagus, lungs, stomach… ect. Look at your body and think of all your organs that run right down of the center of you... and that’s what will most likely get some radiation. Now don’t you all panic at once or anything, Dr. Poppy reassured us over and over that the level of radiation is so small it really should not do any damage at all to any other parts of Tucker’s body. This particular type of cancer cells react very quickly and are easily affected by radiation, because of this they don’t have to use high doses. That’s a relief. When Dr. Poppy was done explain this part of the process he asked if we had any questions…. And this was the start….
Justin said- “Yes, I have a very serious question… when exactly will Tucker turn green and get his super strength powers?”
Dr Poppy, looking stunned for only a second, replied quickly with – “Oh no, THE HULK dose is a much higher setting than what Tucker will be getting, Sorry Tucker you won’t turn green or get super strength powers.” And we all burst out laughing.
Justin- “so when will he glow in the dark?”
Tucker- “I’ll get to glow in the dark? How will I sleep?”
Dr. Poppy- “sorry, no glowing this time, that’s up there with the HULK setting.”
That’s one of the things I love about Justin so much, he can break the tension with such off handed remarks that you can’t help but laugh.
Dr Poppy went on to talk to us about side effects, every parents nightmare, the dreaded side effects….. but the doc had us reassured in no time… the most likely side effect would be nausea, mostly due to the radiation his stomach will inadvertently get, oh and headaches. You see they 99% of the time use steroids with the radiation when you do brain radiation and that keeps the headaches down. Well we can’t use steroids because of Tucker’s AVN so he is probably going to get some headaches… and we will deal with those as/if they come. There, of course, is some slight possibilities of some brain damage…(I know you were all wondering) but he thinks this is such a light dose of radiation that his IQ may only be affected, if even at all, by a few points. Dr. Poppy went on and on about “slight possibility” this and “mostly likely won’t happen” that, that I stopped him- I said… “Dr. Poppy do you realize that every time in Oncology when a doctor has said “slight possibility” or “probably won’t happen” or “very low chance”…. That it has ACTUALLY happened to Tucker on multiple occasions?????”
At which point Justin burst out laughing saying – “SHE’S GOT A POINT IT ALL SEEMS TO HAPPEN WITH TUCKER!”
Dr. Poppy again reassured us that radiation is much easier then chemo and very different, so hopefully this time the “very low/non-existence/slight-most-likely-not” phrases will actually apply.
Man, I hope so.
So onto the rest of the day, they wanted to get Tucker all set up with his “alignment” on the machine so we would be ready for radiation on Tuesday. I never realized how much pre-work goes into radiation. He had to get a full head “cast” thing- it was cool. They took this mesh got it all wet and put it on Tucker’s whole head/face and then molded it to his head. This mask will be marked with the very specific points of where the radiation machine will…. be? (I’m still not good with the radiation lingo… so please just have patients..) anyways, each time the machine has to be lined up at the exact same spots on Tuckers body so he gets the exact same radiation in the same place each time. So we had to sit through the “mask” making, Tucker did great. Then he had to get a full body CT scan, and that was pretty cool. Justin and I sat in the back and got to watch Tucker’s inside appear on the CT scan computer screen, and we saw that he had a lot of gas bubbles ready to come out… and that he probably had to pee soon…. LOL But the CT scan was to get his spin in “line” for the radiation points. We now had the mask for his head with the important points, but they need to TATTOOOOOO on the “points” for the radiation on his body for the spinal column set. They had 2 tech’s with black permanent markers drawing all over Tucker…. At first it was funny -Tucker said it tickled….. BUT then they said they had finished the 5 marks for Tucker, time to tattoo in the mark.
Me: I’m sorry, did you just say you’re going to tattoo my 10 year old son?
Them: Yes, we have to tattoo in the points so the machine lines up at the exact same place each time. He must get radiation in the same place each time. If we tattoo it on then there is no room for error.
Justin: Could you make the tattoo in the shape of a princess something-or-other or even Barbie?
Tucker: Nooooooooo!! No princess stuff no BARBIE!
Me: Yes, k, I get that he needs it…. It just took my breath away that I’m consenting to my 10 year old GETTING INKED. Could this be the start of a lifetime addiction of tattoos for him?
Them: Most likely not, kids don’t seem to like the whole needle thing that you have to use to tattoo with.
At this point Tucker really didn’t have an opinion of tattoos and really didn’t have a clue how one got a tattoo…. Until the teck dude said this key phrase to Tucker: “Tucker this is your tattoo ink, and this is the tattoo needle I’m going to use”…..
Tucker: “Wait, what? Needle? What are you going to do with that needle?”
Tech: “I’m going to gently push the ink into your skin with this needle……… ect….”
Well, I don’t really need to tell you what Tucker’s response was at this point, he didn’t want a tattoo now, it has to do with needles? No thank you, but then Tucker takes a deep breath and says right after saying he doesn’t want to do this… he says “if this is what I got to do to get better then just do it.” 5 tattoos later, along with a little screaming and a bunch of tears….. we were done.
This Friday we go in for a “dry run” on the radiation machine. They take Tucker in and lay him down with his mask on and have the radiation machine programmed in aligned with his “points” and they “run” his course, but without the radiation. In doing this Dr. Poppy at that time can make any slight adjustments to Tucker’s plan or reline him if needed. This will also help Tucker see what he is going to be going through for the next 16 days without the side effects of actually getting the radiation.
Here are some pictures of our “fun” time up there.
Love to all
Amber Justin & the soon to be-THE HULK…I mean, Tucker
*I tried to get the pictures in order but blogger was being stupid, sorry* Tamy
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| Dad & Tucker waiting for the radiation consult to start |
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| Mom and Tucker still waiting..... |
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| Tucker & Dr. Poppy in front of the CT room |
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| Mom & Dad hanging with Tucker |
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| Dad doing what dad's do best.....messing around |
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| Tucker's face mold |
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| Tucker couldn't talk very much...lol |
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| These are Tucker's tattoos...in the black circle you see the tiny black dot? The black dot is the tattoo...and he is set! |
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| Tucker waiting to get his full body CT...and dad entertaining him. Sorry about the picture blogger flipped it |
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| The techs putting the mesh on his face to get his face mold |
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