Life changed in a quick minute for you this past week. Just days after finishing up your proton therapy for breast cancer treatments you fell at home. You were in your office working and your foot did not move with your body when you attempted to turn to reach something. You tumbled over into a free fall and hit your head on the computer desk. Luckily, you were dressed and had your make up on so you looked presentable when the ambulance arrived. Fortunately, a customer was in the office at the time so she was able to get your husband from his garden. You never blacked out or anything so were able to get up after a bit and sit in a chair until the ambulance came. When they arrived the rescue crew recommended that they take you in for a cat scan. In the end the doctors decided to so two cat scans and released finally released you with a sturdy, hard brace to wear until you can see the neurologist. The emergency room doctors told you that you had a fractured vertebrae. The radiation therapy for cancer had gone well and now you find yourself dealing with a different kind of health scare.
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The radiation treatment for cancer session generally takes 15 to 45 minutes, however the actual proton therapy for cancer time spent delivering the protons to the tumor is generally only about a minute or two. Three days later the neurologist gave you a complete check over. He showed you a model of a vertebrae and explained what is wrong with your neck. There is a fracture in one vertebrae, and as the doctor explained vertebrae have a little hole where the artery goes on each side. Your fracture is in that little area, and the doctor is not so much concerned about the vertebrae itself, but rather the damage to the artery.
You have to stay in this hard brace for at least six weeks and will go back at that time to be checked to see if it is healing alright. You are not to drive and you are to keep your neck as possible, no twisting or turning. In other words, you have to keep the brace on so you do not move your neck. After realizing that the radiation treatment for cancer therapy decreases the radiation dose to gastrointestinal structures by at least 59% compared to X-rays, you are more aware of any extra side effects.
The doctor said the pain should become much less soon. You hope you will be able to wash your face and hair as soon as the ear glue heals where they patched up the tear in your ear that was caused by the fall. You have to get permission to remove brace at all, and it is both hot and uncomfortable. You are certainly ready for a shower after eight days, and have realized that you definitely are not a fan of sponge baths and not being able to shampoo your hair.
Your husband is now asking for prayers for your neck instead of the radiation treatment for cancer, but he is asking all the same.
The radiation treatment for cancer were scheduled on a weekly basis, but the help after this injury appears to be ongoing.
You have also had several people from church bring food which is so helpful right now. You feel as if you are looking like someone from Mars, and your husband has days when his arthritis bothers him and he can hardly put his weight on his right foot. He has had that pain checked several time and his relegated himself to the fact that he can enjoy his golf cart as he needs it to go for mail and to take garbage to the barn. That gift from you and the children on his 92nd birthday was the perfect idea.
You are still in pain if you try to do much and are finding it difficult to sleep with a C Pap machine and brace. Aside from requiring lots of patience you feel like you are getting better and know how very lucky you are that you had immediate help the day that you fell.
