Jeff,
My facial weakness and pain began developing about 6 weeks after treatment. I had stereotactic but not fractionated proton beam...in other words, I had it in one treatment session.
The reasons for these developments which, I must make clear, were made clear to me as part of the risks associated with radiation, are as follows:
Even though radiation can be 'targeted', 'fractionated' etc, there are three factors that make collateral damage from radiation of an AN a very real possibility. The first is that the acoustic nerve (hearing) facial nerve (movement) and trigeminal nerve (feeling) lie in very close proximity to the vestibular nerve and it is almost impossible to avoid having them receive some of the radiation and the second reason has to do with the fact that in order to reach the tumor target radiation has to pass through adjacent or intervening healthy tissue to reach the targeted tumor. In my case the facial and trigeminal nerves WERE affected by the radiation.. Different radiation particles, the overall amount of radiation and different methods of delivery are variables which enter into this as well, but I am not going to bore you with those matters here. I hope this is helpful.
Jim
