First Radiation Treatment

Busy day today. I went into the office at 6:30am (may usual time) checked email and caught up with the rest of the crew. I coordinate with some NATO folks in Europe so early morning is the best time for us to communicate. It’s early for me, but it’s afternoon for them. I got to the hospital at 10:00am to have my blood drawn for lab work. I waited around as long as I could (10:40am) then had to go down to the radiation department in the hospital basement. I met with Dr. Atkins and we went over the treatment schedule and the radiation plan. He told me what was going to be radiated and how much. Then we went over the short and long term side effects. I think I’ve pretty well covered that in previous blogs, so I won’t go into it again.

Then it was down to the treatment room. It’s pretty dimly lit and they have a mural on the ceiling. When you’re lying on the table looking up, it’s like laying on a forest floor looking up into the trees. I guess that’s supposed to be relaxing. They showed me where to put my things, laid out my mouth guards and told me where to get my tongue depressor thingy. They told me they will first be taking some x-rays for measurement purposes and would follow that with the actual treatment. So, in went the tongue depressor thingy, on went the mask and the process began. It took about 15 minutes for the x-rays. They then came in and drew things on pieces of tape attached to the mask. They also drew a mark on the center of my chest (bulls eye if you will).

All this time I have to deal with the tongue depressor thingy. It makes your saliva run and it’s a bit hard to swallow while lying down strapped to the x-ray table. They also want you to be as still as possible. I have to essentially suck air through my mouth to draw the saliva to the back of my throat to try and swallow it. It’s not an easy task and as hard as I may try to relax my jaws are clamping down trying to hold the thingy in one place. That gets old pretty quick.

We started the radiation treatment, it took about 15 minutes. It’s like getting an x-ray but it stays on a lot longer. I couldn’t feel a thing. I just laid there watching the machine work its way around my upper body, stopping at designated spots and then a short zap, then on to the next position. I tried to stay as still as possible and do the swallowing thing in between zaps. They finally came in took off the mask and told me I was done. They instructed me to put my mouth guards away, put my shirt on and join them out in the office and they left. They don’t spend much time in the treatment area. We worked out a schedule, it’ll pretty much be at 9:30 each day except Tuesdays when I get my chemo treatments. They will be flexible as to my radiation treatment times on the days I get chemo. Then I was off to my chemo treatment.

Back on the 6th floor as I approached the reception desk in the chemo clinic my nurse saw me and told me to go to her treatment room (room C). She set up to draw blood out of my port (lots of syringes, gauze, vials and stuff). She numbed the area a little and then flushed the port leaving in a connection for the IV bags. She hooked me up to a regular drip and we waited for my chemo to arrive. The port is very convenient, there’s no pain and I don’t have to put up with some tech sticking one arm then the other, then on to a hand, back to an arm, digging around with the needle to find a good vein. (port – good, tech with needle – bad) I had arrived a bit early for my appointment so the drugs weren’t there yet. I was set up in a nice recliner with a pillow, a warm blanket and a TV was showing the Olympic Games. Two other people were already there getting their treatments. After a half hour or so my drugs came and she hooked me up, first a dose of Benadryl, then the super juice. This treatment was to take about an hour. I started watching TV and the Benadryl kicked in and off to la la land I went. I woke up with the over powering urge to pee. I had about 10 minutes of chemo left in the bag, but my bladder wasn’t having any of it and insisted that it be emptied. Off I trundled with my rack of drugs to the restroom. It was finally over; Nurse Pace flushed my port and sent me on my way with a nice hug.

I then went to the waiting area for my next appointment with Dr. Richard (the chemo Dr.). He wanted to know how I was feeling and if I was experiencing any side effects. It was a pretty fast meeting; he was about a half hour behind schedule. He set me up with another appointment in 4 weeks.

I guess this was a pretty boring update, but that’s going to be my life for the next 6 weeks. I’ll try and keep the boring stuff to a minimum, but I’m hoping not to have to report much on side effects. Cross your fingers.

Tomorrow, I meet with the doctors that installed my port and PEG. That should be interesting.