In Case You Were Curious...

Some of you who may recall your sub-atomic physics (and possibly other folks as well...) may have wanted to know what kind of "radiation" is involved in "Radiation Oncology" -- or just "rads" to those of us who find ourselves using the term more often than we'd care to:

-- is this alpha particles?

-- gamma rays?

-- quarks?

After all, if medical folks are using antimatter in PET scans ("PET" standing for "positron emission tomography"), one's choices would seem to be pretty wide.

And the chats that Deb and I have had with our rad doc -- understandably -- focus on my therapy and recovery rather than academic matters like "what kind of rads?"

So the other day, as we were leaving the rad facility, I noticed a Physician's Assistant who seemed to have a little time on her hands.

So I asked her: "What kind of radiation?"

She asked back: "What kind of cancer?"

I said: "Head and neck."

She thought for a moment and said: "It would be X-Rays. Probably 6MV."

I asked: "MV?"

She said: "Yes, X-Rays at 6 megavolts."

Some Background and Implications
My rad doc had explained that the radiation level was high enough to be damaging to the cancer cells -- and some other healthy cells -- but not high enough to damage other types of cells. So the cancer cells take the hit, as do the cells in my salivary glands on the left side of my neck. And that damage will be permanent. And the bone in my jaws (as I understand it) will be permanently unable to recover from infection. So extraction of any teeth becomes a major issue. (But my dentist assures me that my teeth should be fine for the duration.) Skin cells will "burn," during the treatment, but should recover completely. Hair follicles in the beard area -- as mentioned before -- are goners.

But the muscle cells and nerve cells in the radiated area should be unaffected.