possible side effect of radiation therapy |
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04/22/2009 19:16
dunegirl
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04/22/2009 19:16
dunegirl
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possible side effect of radiation therapy
I just got back from my internists office, I went there due to numbness in my little and ring finger of my left hand. In Feb. I finished radiation treatments for DC. I had 10 treatments in my right hand with great results. The left hand did not seem to be responding so we did an additional 7 treatments. Two weeks ago I started getting the tingling sensation and it has progressed to numbness and loss of stregth. My doctor diagnosed ulnar neuropathy which is usually caused by an injury to the elbow or shoulder or hand, none of which I had. He is now suspicious of the radiation treatment causing this. I have no idea if this will turn out to be the case but thought I should give the heads up just in case. I have an appt. with a neurologist in a week and should know more then. Please know I am not trying to cause any panic, I stand by the radiation option strongly. I will update as soon as I learn more.
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04/22/2009 21:58
flojo
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04/22/2009 21:58
flojo
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Re: possible side effect of radiation therapy
Thank you for keeping us posted. I have an appointment on April 28th for a consultation with an oncologist who does RT for Dupuytren's. That gives me one more question to ask. Secondly, I didn't realize that there would be so many treatments. For some reason, I thought it would be one or at most 3 treatments, a month apart. I don't know where I got that from. Has everyone else who had RT for Dupuytren's have 10 or more treatments?
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04/25/2009 19:47
Issleib
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04/25/2009 19:47
Issleib
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Re: possible side effect of radiation therapy
I had ten treatments five then a break then five more. That's pretty standard when you are being treated locally and do'n need to worry about hotels.
The differential diagnosis for a peripheral neuropathy is long not just physical injury. Radiation would not be anywhere near the top of my list. See your neurologist.
Colleen MD
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06/22/2009 20:07
bstenman
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06/22/2009 20:07
bstenman
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Re: possible side effect of radiation therapy
The body is actually able to recover from moderate radiation exposure and the gap in treatments is to provide time for this recovery. The symptoms you describe is from nerve impingement and many things can cause this from muscle swelling to calcium buildups around the spine where the nerves squeeze their way up to the brain stem. Where you sense the pain is often not the area of impingement. Massage, PT, muscle relaxants, etc. can help if the problem is neuromuscular in nature.
I have found that GP's are ill equipped to deal with these problems and usually want to just inject cortisone where they thing the problem originates. Sports medical practitioners usually are the most helpful as they deal with sports and exercise related injuries and the entire body.
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