Radiation Still...Every.Single.Day.

Almost four weeks done of radiation and I still don't have the office figured out. Almost every day it seems like a ghost town, not many seen in the hallways, empty patient rooms, and only three times have I seen another person in the back waiting room.

I go at 1:00 every afternoon. Most days I am right on time, sometimes I can be up to 15 minutes early and twice now I have been a little late (five minutes or so when the lights are all red). Today was one of those days. I got sweetly and quietly reprimanded for my lateness because they are scheduled "one patient after another and we don't want to get too far behind".

No one was in the waiting room in the front or back when I got there of course because I was late. After I was done there was no one sitting there waiting to be "back to back" with me. There were some waiting in the front waiting room for people who had been taken back but I had no idea where those people were because once again I walked down an empty hallway with patient rooms all empty before I reached the front.

I am still confused. But how am I doing? Well...I have the little plus mark on my skin to tell them where to line up the two green lines before we start. I get up on the table and there is a sheet between me and my mold. With millimeter and centimeter jerks and twists of the sheet they get me exactly in the right place. Then they say "okay, ready to go" and they leave the room.

The machine is positioned above to the left of me and I get a zap in that position. Then the machine moves around the front of me and to the right all the way behind where I can't see. There I get another zap. After that one they come back in and put a bollis (however you spell it) over me and cover that with a sheet so the material that the bollis is made from doesn't reflect in their pictures. The bollis is supposed to trick the machine into thinking that my skin is either closer or father away than it really is. They have told me this part is what causes the most redness to my skin. I don't pretend to know what all that means.

The machine (the big EYE) moves up a little on my right and I can see it out of my peripheral vision. Then it zaps me again. The final zap is after the machine moves back over to my left where it rests at about the ten o'clock position. The zaps are all about 20 seconds except every once in awhile the second zap is only about 7-8 seconds. Again, I don't pretend to know the science behind all of this.

March 9th is my last day. I will be glad. It is a bit inconvenient to go every day and I know I need to be there promptly and I am not arguing my reprimand at all, I am just once again coming up with more questions about this office than answers the longer I go. One question I have had is why if I can have a sheet over me when they use the bollis, do I have to undress from the waist up when I go in? If the radiation goes through the sheet and the bollis, wouldn't it go through a shirt too? Just makes me wonder.

My skin looks like sunburn complete with tan (or I should say burn) lines where the machine stops each day. It really isn't too bad except for my scar. It seems to be really aggravated by the radiation but some coconut oil with frankincense, lavender and a couple other oils feels great. I have a little fatigue but it is manageable.

People have asked if I feel anything when the radiation is going and I don't. It is a lot like an x-ray. You see the machine, you hear the  noise but feel nothing really. I am still battling the fluid build up and I am pretty faithful in my wearing of the arm sleeve and glove even though the glove drives me absolutely crazy!! This week my weight is up and my boots don't fit well so I know I need to keep drinking my water.

This too shall pass...