Saturday, September 22, 2012

Back from first PRRT in Basel

The first treatment in Basel Switzerland went well, just as the doctors said it would.  I haven't blogged before now, because the side effects lasted longer than I thought they would. I have been weak and tired with a lot of enlargement to my liver. 

I spoke with Dr. O'Dorisio last week and he said the enlargement of the liver was to be expected because my liver was heavily burdened with tumors. He increased my Octritide injections to help control the Carcinoid Syndrome. 

The treatment itself was painless and only took about 15 minutes.  I  spent a total of 2.5 days in the hospital, rested at the hotel a couple of days and flew home.  (8 days total)  The cost of the first treatment with lodging, airfare, hospital, & misc.$14,400us. 

The worst part of the entire time was the flight over and back.  About 15 hours each way, 8 of it over the ocean with not much room to try to be comfortable. 

If you are planning this trip I suggest the following:
  1. Pay for the upgraded seating on the long part of the flight (we went Delta)
  2. If you are weak or short of breath ask for wheel chair assist all the way 
  3. Try to plan enough time between plane changes as some of the air ports are large and getting from one flight to another can take longer than you think. 

Overall everything was good, the folks overseas were helpful when we needed it and most of the airport experience was good.  The University of Basel Hospital was excellent from beginning to end.

My next treatment is October 3rd so we'll be on our way again in a couple of weeks.

My grandson (Patrick Rath) and my son-in-law (Shawn Rath) seeing me off at the airport in Kansas City.


 

1 comment:

  1. If you get PRRT stop octriotide, because the receptors on your tumors will be taken already. The isotope needs as much as possible receptors to get the full dose of LU 177 into the tumor. Ythrium90 is the sharper version. I took 10 Giga bequarel the first time Y90 the second time 7.3 Gbqueral of Lu177 and so on. I had 5 treatments. 25GB is the max what the human body can take with out harm to kidney, heart and blood. Be careful with higher doses.

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