I started radiation therapy on July 18 of 2022 and was to undergo daily treatment for 28 rounds of radiation. 

The first step was to do all my measurements, which I think I mentioned in a previous journal.  They did these by doing some rough measurements  based on a scan of my torso and marking 3 spots, one in my right armpit and two in my left armpit area. Literally X marks the spot! The marks were covered with Tegaderm and I was told to keep them on until I came in next. While my arms were positioned above my head the nurses molded a special styrofoam bead pillow around me and vacuumed it into a permanent form to be used every time I had radiation.  The calculations also took into account my body weight and height to determine a dosage to go along with the target locations.

After calculations were completed (~4 business days),  I came back in and they exacted the mark locations and put permanent tattoos where the marks were. Now I can say I'm a tatted lady! I mean, they are only blue dots, but still...

Anyway, my first treatment was pretty interesting. There were nice little dressing rooms where I took my shirt off and put a gown on. After a few times the lovely radiation gals gave me this nice little kimono thing to use every time, you can see it in the third picture on this post. Once I was gowned up they laid me on my back, put a wedge pillow under my knees, and positioned me in my special pillow that we made during measurements. Using the lasers you can see in the pictures, the nurses made some tiny adjustments in my position to make sure the machine was lined up exactly on my tattoos. I didn't mention this before, but my tattoos were just little dots about the size of a pinhead, so they had to be pretty exact with the laser.

Once I was in position, everyone had to leave the room and a thick vault door was closed so that nobody except me was exposed to the radiation therapy. The machine rotated around me and administered the radiation according to my plan. I had to lay incredibly still to make sure my target spots didn't move too much. Thankfully I was laying on my back, because I've heard of others having much more uncomfortable positions. I honestly didn't really feel much, it was more of a light tingle. Overall, the process took about 20 minutes from beginning to end. After the treatment was completed the vault door was opened and I just changed back into my clothes and headed to work.

I went to the cancer center every week day for 28 days for a treatment, usually around lunch, to complete my radiation treatment regimen. A couple times the machine got stuck and I had to lay there for almost an hour while they tried to reset it. They told me this was because one of my treatment angles was pretty much at the max rotation capability of the machine. I also made the mistake once of going to the lake with friends and not sunscreening diligently enough. I got a slight sunburn and it lasted for three weeks. After all, radiation therapy uses x-rays and gamma rays just like are present in sunlight, so my skin was much more sensitive. The treatment left me pretty consistently tired as well, but otherwise I didn't experience any of the more severe side effects like skin blistering or nerve damage. I'm attributing that to my slathering of Aquaphor on my chest every night.

On the last day of treatment my mom came and brought french silk pie cookies for everyone. The nurses had a gong for me to bang and I put my thumbprint on the patient wall with my initials and the date.  The time seemed to go very fast for this stretch of my treatment path!

Until next time.