What You Can't See

Today marked 90% done with radiation, closing out our last full week of commuting to Boston's MGH and the Burr Proton Therapy Center. After radiation he was given his second audiogram. The results showed no hearing loss yet from the cancer treatments. Both proton radiation and chem can destroy the tiny hairs in our ear canals that sense the changes in air pressure that we call sound. This whole cancer thing is horrifying to a parent.

One of Orion's main chemo drugs was Carboplatin. He was administered this drug throughout the spring in three cycles.The last dose was about seventy days ago. Research tells us that 38 percent of carboplatin receiving patients suffer hearing loss beginning 135 days after end of treatment. A more recent article suggested 10-29%. At MGH they try very hard to prevent the things that get damaged so Orion was given sodium thiosulfate after carboplatin. This should prevent hearing loss. Two and a half months from now Orion will be in physics classes at grad school and the tale will be told.