Radiotherapy Consent

Brett is still at home but has had a plethora of meetings and tests to be completed before transplant conditioning starts.
I write this as Brett is at his ECG and Echo-cardiogram.

You may think its odd me merry blogging away whilst my son has an important test well firstly, he's not alone he has gone with his dad, secondly, he's had quite a fair few of these scans before so not only knows what to expect but could possibly perform the scan himself and thirdly I am typing as I wait for paint to dry in the grotty down stairs toilet.

Kev and I have managed to paint the upstairs bathroom and the downstairs toilet which we didn't entirely think through, as where are the kids going to go when they want to the toilet?

The weirdest meeting this week was with the Radiotherapy specialist.
He was a very nice chap but that detracted little when he started his 'speech'.
The meeting room contained myself, Brett, Kev and then the transplant specialist nurse, the radiotherapy specialist, the paediatrician radiotherapy doctor and another woman who was introduced but I cant remember why she was there.

The chap started talking general stuff, you know, the beige conversational starters to make everyone feel as ease. We're pretty used to those conversations in fact we very often start chatting first to new doctors who haven't quite mastered the art yet.

So the conversation eventually turned to the matter in hand - 
Full Body Irradiation.
The good points are it destroys the body therefore helping the new stem cells take up their new residence. It should reduce the risk of his bodies rejection of the stem cells.
The bad points are it destroys the body.
The risk of dying increases numerous side effects later on in life can include, cataracts  infertility, memory loss and reduced brain function and it increases the risks of developing other cancers.
Yes like chemotherapy, radiotherapy causes cancer.
Blimey.

At the end of the meeting there was the normal time for questions although we feel its better to sit quietly at the minute as we are definitely suffering from a bad case of too much information.
I don't care what could happen in the future, I just want Brett to have one.

Finally Brett went through the formality of signing the consent form.
We laugh about these consent forms, I know they are for legalities and ensure the hospital doesn't get sued but in our case what's the choice?

Well in Brett's case it's death.
We have the transplant consent to sign on Monday....just pass us the pen.