I had my first actual radiation treatment today, and I have to say I didn't feel any different after than I did before, which is good. These first few initial appointments will be longer, the nurse said, because they spend time making sure I'm lined up correctly, and so on. That's one of the things I forgot to mention in the last post...they put little dot tattoos on you! I have one on each side, and then one on my stomach...and they're permanent. Not that that bothers me. I
LOVE tattoos!! I think I might make them into something pretty after I'm all done! :) Anyways, they use them to line me up on the table. They had to take extra films today for the doc because I have a supraclavicular tumor (hope I said that right), so depending on the position of my arms it can show up higher or lower. That can be a pain for them! The nurse told me to be prepared tomorrow because she was going to mark on me. I already have a few blue sharpie marks covered with clear stickers. I'm starting to look somewhat like a pin cushion...just kidding!
The longer I'm on the table with the mask over my face the worse my
"scales" get. It doesn't actually hurt, it's just kind of uncomfortable.
It would make me look sorta crazy if I were to go out for lunch right after....it goes away fairly quickly though.
The machine they use was nothing like what I expected. I had this mental picture in my head, and then when I walked in the room I was like "WHOA!" The bed is literally a board with a little neck holder, which is what the mask actually gets snapped to. Then the bed gets raised up pretty high, and the machine then moves around you to where they're going to "shoot" you. The whole experience is pretty weird, but at least it doesn't last too long!
