Mondo Rad

First radiation treatment today took 40 minutes -- apart from the time I hung out with Scruffy and Lucky (you can see them on the ambassador page). We were chillin in the waiting room where Lucky made himself comfortable on my lap while a musician played vaguely spiritual pieces on acoustic guitar. Not only that, but while chatting with the Paws & Hearts founder, I was slightly embarassed to discover he was my patient at Lenscrafters. Awkwardness averted as the tech stepped in to guide me to the treatment room.

More like treatment cave, I mean it's huge, about 20 x 20, and it has to be because it houses this enormous machine. It wasn't the four-arm version as mentioned in Wilbur's post; mine had one arm which travels 360 degrees circumferentially around the treatment table. Lying comfortably with my neck tilted back, I gazed at the starlight decoration on the ceiling as the machine hummed hypnotically beside me. With the arm rotated directly above me, little bidirectional skewers held in the glass panel shifted and morphed as the techs analyzed my PET image superimposed over my body. Those moving pieces actually help delineate the proper treatment field, and through them a light beamed down a polygon that the tech markered on my chest.

An x-ray was taken. The arm rotated behind/below me and a flat digital radiography panel was lowered down thisclose from my face. Very cool.

The treatment proper was so fast, 30 seconds each from the back and the front. The metallic hum is drowned out by a high pitched beep, and a flashing red light -- otherwise known as sure signs of danger. That got my heart pounding.

All done, I slathered on some aloe ointment and went on my merry way.

Sorry for the graphic photo ... :{ but anyways you can see my thyroid is directly in the field (tho they have kindly avoided my larynx) as well as upper lung. I have to keep those stickers on. Lovely -- summer is just the time to invest in crewnecks.