Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 - Me and Rosie the Radiator

Hey Bloggy!

Day 2 of Radiation Therapy and I've decided the radiation machine and I are going to become intimate friends.. so I had to name her! From now on, she will be known as Rosie the Radiator! Albert, one of my radiation technicians took this picture of me with Rosie. Rosie is being shy here and you don't see her in full action.

Behind me is the narrow plank-like bed that I lie on. There is a small pillow for my head, a wedge of foam that goes under my knees and then a little contraption that has a place of each foot. What this does is supposedly lines the body up in the proper posture on the bed.

Then the fun begins. Today there were 3 technicians who have their clipboards and remotes while they prod, move me a fraction of an inch here, then a fraction of an inch there, then raise the bed with the remote, move it to the left, move it to the right. This goes on for eons while they get me lined up just so. Oh, and let's not forget the "freckle" tattoos the Surrey technicians had done when I got my scan done by them a week ago. Oh, but it doesn't stop there...

I had to go to the "Simulator" today and be fussed over by 5 radiation technicians while they poked, prodded, moved, raised, lowered and marked my skin. Yes... I have a virtual road map drawn on my stomach, hips and upper legs. Once I was marked up, (apparently the Surrey technicians mark up differently than the Vancouver technicians), they then applied silver nitrate so that the markings won't wash off. Eventually they will wear off, so I may have to have the silver nitrate reapplied in a couple of weeks.

I had to be at the Agency at 9am this morning for the Simulator appt. That was interesting because that appt. lasted for 1 1/2 hours... just in time for me to walk down the hall in the lovely fashion statement you see in the picture, to my 10:35 radiation appt. Now, the idea is, if they have all the markings right and they can line me up really quickly, then the actual zapping will only take 10-15 minutes. For each session, I get 3 zaps. One from above, one from the left side and one from underneath.

The way Rosie the Radiator works is very kewl. I'm lying on the bed, which is raised to about 5 feet off the ground. Now, that big round radiator that you see behind my head in the picture, is on that big thick arm. The technicians can now be out of the room and watching on monitors... and using a remote and the computers, can line up Rosie in the three different angles... then turn on the zapper :)

Tomorrow, I have a 10:45am Rosie appt. Depending on how the xrays turned out today, will determine whether we have to do more xrays tomorrow or whether I just have to be lined up and zapped :)

It's only Day 2 of radiation so no, I haven't felt any side affects yet. The technicians say that IF I am going to have any reaction to the radiation, it probably won't be until after Week 2. Again, everyone is different and depending on what they are radiating can have different side affects. I am getting a section of my abdominal wall cooked (grin)... and they say that for the area that is getting done (10 X 12 cm), I will be getting a lot of radiation. So, we will just have to see how my system, after the 4 aggressive chemos, handles this part of the journey.

Meanwhile, on Thurs, I meet with Dr. Gill, my chemo and primary oncologist at 9am to go over and get set up with the oral chemo; then at 10:50am I get zapped; then after the zapping, I meet with Dr. Ma, my radiation oncologist.

Tonight... calls for a grilled cheese sandwich and soup (grin), sometime before American Idol and the results for Dancing With the Stars! I didn't make it to the West End Community Centre this afternoon because I didn't realize I was going to be at the Cancer Agency for 4 hours today ;) So if tomorrow isn't that long, Bridget and I will wander down to the Community Centre to check out what kinds of classes they are offering in the Spring and also, to pay for my Resident Parking Permit for street parking in the 'hood :)

That's it for now! Ciao!

Cheryl