NBUVB times

I've been keeping track of the times that my NbUVB treatments go for on this second round of treatment. During the first round, I only went up to about a minute and a half. So far I'm up to 2 minutes 20 seconds with a probable goal of around 3 minutes.



I'll post updates (maybe) as I go along. So far I've been going twice a week since March 27th. The real values they go off of are dosages in milliJoules, but they don't tell me that unless I ask for it. The graph is of the length of time the treatment is (because they do tell me that each time). For example, the last treatment may look like a decrease (it was 6 seconds shorter), but that's just because the machine was operating differently that day. The last treatment was actually the same dose as the one before because I burned at 2 minutes 20 seconds, so instead of increasing it again, they kept it the same dose.

Starting treatments again

My last post was titled "Seeing a new doctor soon" so I suppose I should start with that visit first.  Basically, he went over everything that my previous doctor had sent over, said "yup, you have CTCL", and "yup, you should start up narrowband UVB again". 

So, today (yes, it's taken me 4 months to actually set up a nUVB appointment, don't judge) I went to my first treatment (for this round). 

I've already made a post about what the nUVB experience is like, so I'll focus on the differences this time around. My previous place had you wear goggles and a face shield, this place has flimsy sunglasses and asks you to put sunscreen on your face. They provide the mineral oil which is nice because I had to bring my own each time before. 

The biggest difference was that this place has a fan in the booth so that you get nice cool air circulating around. It never got terribly hot, but was just comfortable. They started me at 53 seconds which is a lot more than my previous place started me, but I'm not quite as fair as I was back then (still classified as a level 1 skin, the palest). 

They also let you see the calendar and write in your own appointments which is nice. 

Afterwards, I have the sensitive, tingly, I'm kinda burned but not really, feeling all over my body. I'm exhausted, hungry, cranky, and worn out. On the drive home I realized that I'm in for another year or two of this feeling which sucks. Then I remembered that compared to most people's "cancer treatments", this is nothing and I need to stop being a big baby. 

I hope everyone is having a great day. Now I'm off to eat, sleep, whine, and lotion.