Today was my radiation planning appointment. Very interesting.
The object is to get you positioned so that the radiation
gets to the right place – and to make sure that you’ll be in precisely that
same position for every treatment.
To do this, they make a mold also called a cradle. Here’s a
link to one brand of cradle.
Once I was in the basic position, it was a matter of fine
tuning – lots of minor adjustments until the technician thought she had it correct. Then she called in the physicist
who took a look and gave his approval. Next was setting the mold – a little
more pushing and shoving to make sure my position would remain stable. She made
X marks where the lasers were hitting.
One on each side and one on my chest.
Then the radiation oncologist came in and put little
stickers all over. These will show up on
the CT scan. My head was positioned so
that I couldn’t see any of this.
Then came the CT scan.
Didn’t take more than a couple of minutes.
Once the scan is done, the technician removes all the
stickers and proceeds to the tattoos..
At the center of each X she put a drop of dye and then stuck it with a
tiny needle. These will be the targets for the lasers when I have each treatment. Not exactly body art, but
probably the closest I’ll come.
They had me scheduled to start treatment next week, but
that’s been postponed because I’ve been feeling really crappy lately. Running a slight temperature, not able to eat
much, and just no energy at all. Had
some blood tests yesterday to see if anything shows up. I wonder if I haven’t just got myself into a
self-perpetuating downward spiral. Not
eating is not good and leads to lack of energy, and all the other problems,
etc. So I’m trying to get some good food
and plenty of fluids inside me to see if that makes a difference. Would be nice if it was a simple as that.
In the meantime, my head fuzz continues to grow very
slowly. I can actually feel it moving
when it is windy.
Taste buds are still AWOL.
You been doing so well! You can handle this...
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