My wonderful mum was due to have her first radiotherapy treatment today to treat a 2B tumour with lymph node involvement. She had her first Chemo and then went for her scan and was told her bowel and bladder was too big, they sent her to the toilet, did another scan and was told it was still too big so couldn’t start treatment as wouldn’t be able to target the tumour correctly. Has this happened to anyone else? Obviously we’ve been planning today as the first day of her getting better and for it to be postponed is worrying us. What happens if it’s still too big tomorrow etc? Does it mean there’s something extra wrong? Etc.
This is fascinating reading! Thank you Lilypingu and hall. My chemo-rads were almost seven years ago, abroad, and I was put onto an incredibly limiting diet before treatment began. I have always assumed that this was to mitigate sensitivity further along during treatment when bowels begin to object to the onslaught. I was not allowed fruit or fibre, of almost any kind, so perhaps this was also to prevent the kind of situation you have both been witness to.
This happens. I had 2 sets of planning scans done as I have an unusual bladder/uterus/bowel position/size. A plan was made, and 2nd radiation treatment was cancelled due to bowel being too empty, thus putting the markers out of place. It was very disheartening. I had a similar issue pop up around the end of week 2, and they ended up re-doing my radiation plan to make a slightly bigger field. The reasoning being I have a lot of organ mobility, and the concern that part of the tumor, or a lymph node could be missed. So slightly less conservative approach when it comes to sparing tissue/organs, but more thorough coverage of the area. They really only get one blast at it with radiation, and my oncologist felt it was more important to have the 25 consecutive treatments than to miss days, or possibly miss the cancer itself.
