Radiation

On March 9, we met with Dr. Weyers (my Radiation Oncologist) about my upcoming radiation treatment plan.  Radiation will use high-energy X-rays to kill any remaining cancer cells.  Radiation does have some side effects with the most common being skin redness (like a sunburn) and fatigue.  I was a little worried about the skin burning, especially since I burn easy from the sun.  However, Dr. Weyers assured me that surprisingly there is no correlation between skin fairness and x-ray sunburn.

So on this day, I had my molding and tattoos done. The molding ensures that I'm in the same position each day I undergo radiation.  To create a cast, I had to lay on what looked like a bean bag with my arms above my head.  It then hardens into a cast that is so specific, I need to find where my fingers go each day in radiation.  After the molding, they did a CT scan to take pictures and calculate the area that was going to get treated.  They then moved the table around a little bit, and a red beam shined from the ceiling to mark the spots for my tattoos.  I have a total of 6, which look like freckles.  In total, I had to lay there with my arms up for about 45 minutes.  My arms were shaking like crazy towards the end.  Luckily, my treatments will be much faster.

On Friday, March 13, I had my dry run at the Mukwonago clinic.  They needed to verify that the mold, tattoos, and calculated radiation area all worked on the machine I will be using at the clinic.  Everything went very smoothly, and I got the ok to start radiation on Monday (see next paragraph for Monday update :).

Monday, March 16 was my first day of radiation.  When I walk into the room I state my name, birth date, and identify myself with a picture that is up on a big screen.  Then I get a pillow case to cover my chest area and lay down on the machine with my mold.  There are 3 red lights that line up with the tattoos under my right arm, left arm, and chest area.  If you look close in the picture you can see 2 of the beams (on my shoe and under my left arm).  They position the machine according to their calculations.  I then have to lay as still as possible, and the radiation begins.  The machine itself moves around me and takes about 5 minutes once I'm in position.

All together I will have 33 treatments, 5 days a week.  The radiation seems weird to me right now, because I really don't feel anything (a far cry from chemo and surgery).  I wonder, can this really be doing anything?  But, I'm only 3 treatments in, and if it can help reduce my chances of a recurrence, it's well worth it!