Kitta Reeds
Relaxation Techniques Help Brain Cancer Patient during Her Radiosurgery Treatment
Kitta Reeds was scheduled to receive a single radiosurgery treatment for two tumors in her brain, and naturally, she was feeling anxious about the procedure, even though she knew it was necessary. One essential aspect of the treatment was that she would be immobilized on the treatment table, her head set into a custom-molded mask. While a vast improvement over more invasive forms of immobilization that involve attaching screws to the patient's skull, the mask, which is bolted to the table, felt confining. But it helps to keep patients from moving, helping the clinicians who treat brain tumors.
Though confident in her clinicians and the technology they'd be using, Kitta still worried that once she was immobilized, she would start to panic. "I'm prone to worry whenever I feel like I don't have control over a situation. I knew the longer I had to lie still, the more I'd start feeling this way," said Kitta, 73, a former technical writer and editor. "When the doctors told me the treatment would be delivered in just one session on a single day, I had to ask, ‘But how many hours will it take?'"
Doctors reassured her by explaining more about her radiosurgery treatment. Kitta wasn't sure how radiosurgery would differ from the radiation therapy treatment she received for metastic cancer one year earlier. She learned that radiosurgery is a technique for delivering powerful doses of radiation over a short period of time. It is non-invasive, which means that doctors do not make any cuts or incisions, but rather, treat the tumor with high-energy beams shaped to converge on the tumor while minimizing exposure to healthy tissue.
"Even though I knew that no one would hurt me, or even touch me, the fact remained that my head would be in a mask bolted to the table," said Kitta. To help her through the experience, she worked with a medical social worker to devise several relaxation techniques. On the day she was treated, in January 2009, she remembers counting backwards from 50. Another mental trick was to compare her experience to a Bible story she'd learned as a child.
"I kept imaging I was the baby Moses floating on the river in the basket made of bulrushes. Like him, I was contained, and I felt a little helpless," she said. "But I kept reminding myself that he had been safe, and so was I." The radiosurgery session was divided between the tumors, with one treated in 22 minutes, and the second treated in 43 minutes. The entire session lasted a little over an hour.
Eight weeks later, in April of 2009, Kitta sat across from her doctor, discussing what he had learned from recent imaging studies. After her radiosurgery treatment, one tumor had dropped from 8 millimeters in length to 3 and was still shrinking. The other, which had been 3 millimeters long, was completely gone. "I gave my doctor a big hug," said Kitta. "Treating two lesions in one day in a little over an hour—it's an amazing technique. I think this kind of treatment will change the way patients think about radiation therapy. It did for me."
Two-years post treatment, in late 2010, Kitta reported that both of her brain tumors were eliminated and neither has recurred.
Radiation therapy may not be appropriate for all types of brain cancer. Serious side effects can occur and include faigue, hair loss while you receive radiation, scalp irritation, muffled hearing, and short term memory loss. Talk to your doctor about radiation therapy.
Treating two lesions in one day in a little over an hour-it's an amazing technique. I think this kind of treatment will change the way patients think about radiation therapy. 
