Radiation Simulation Complete!

This morning I went in to the oncology radiology department again. I was first placed in an exam room where I met the Nurse Practitioner. She was super nice and told me I would be meeting with her and the doctor every Wednesday after my treatment that day. She said her office is right off the treatment room and to pop my head in and let her know if I needed anything in between those weekly visits. She went over a THREE page document of a guide to pelvic radiation therapy, much of it being side effects which were very common and how to deal with them. It won’t be a picnic or a walk in the park, but compared to the life-altering changes I would get with the surgical or chemo option, I am willing to give it a go and pray it kills that tumor growth or at least stuns it for awhile. If extra radiation hits the larger tumors around it, all the better.

I was then taken to a dressing room area like at Old Navy or Kohl’s…I was given a pair of scrub shorts and a key. I locked up my purse, shoes, pants, and jacket in the locker in the dressing room and padded in my socked feet to the waiting room in the back. There was another man sitting there in the same scrub shorts. We joked about our exclusive club clothing for a few minutes before I was called back. The two radiation oncology techs had me lie down on a hard table covered with a long sheet. I had a square spongy-like block to place my head on and they placed a squishy but somewhat firm block of bean bag beans under my knees and feet. They then extracted the air from that bag of beans under my feet and it hardened to a mold of my legs from my knees down. That mold is mine for the next month or so, until my radiation treatments are over. They had a bunch of them in large vertical wooden slats in the room, where they are stored until they are no longer needed. These are vacuum splints, and we use them often in EMS care in the prehospital setting. We have ones for legs, arms, and for the entire body, which is much better to use than a backboard nowadays. So I was familiar with what they were doing. They have a machine that sucks the air out in a second or two. We have to use a hand pump that takes calories and manpower to pump over and over again. I had mentioned to the girls doing my simulation today that I already had some tattoos from when I did this 6 1/2 years ago. I never got to the radiation part at that time; they decided at the last minute to do chemo instead. They were able to find the ones easily on the sides of my hips. (I told them if they could find them, great. I was not a contortionist and couldn’t find them myself.) They did find them right away and said they could use them. Yay! That was two less tattoos that I needed today. They couldn’t find the other one, but I was quick to remind them last time I was placed on my stomach for simulation versus on my back like today. The other tattoo was on my lower back. Now I have a new one on my lower stomach. Honestly, the skin over my lower abdomen doesn’t have a ton of feeling in the skin due to the three surgeries I had there in the past. Just simple nerve damage on the skin after multiple incisions. However, I did feel that needle in my stomach today for the third tattoo. It wasn’t bad, but it just isn’t a place you are used to having a needle at a 90 degree angle jammed in there.

One thing that was really nice today was that they allowed me to stay mostly dressed. As I said, I just had to take off my jeans and put some scrub shorts on instead. I was covered with a warmed blanket and asked to pull my shorts and underwear down past my hips under the blanket. When I did this in Omaha, 6 1/2 years ago, I was stripped down to only my socks and they took out cameras to take multiple photos of me, naked, lying on a hard table. It was humiliating. I was expecting that today and that was not at all what happened. I was really pleasantly surprised. I only had to get one tattoo and I kept my dignity. I did have to go in with a full bladder and they ran the CT scan with my bladder full and then let me get up and use the bathroom and repeated everything with an empty bladder. They will let me know which one I will have to try to emulate once they schedule me. So I am done with all the things I need to do! It will most likely be around Monday, May 11th before I can start my treatments (called fractions). I will be doing 15 over 3 weeks – so Monday thru Friday for three weeks. It takes me about 30 minutes to get to the facility and it will take 15-30 minutes for the visit and then another 30 minutes drive home. Not too bad. For now, the radiation professionals will decide all the directions, dosages and whatever else goes into the formula of getting my treatment ready. It will take a week or two.

On my way home today I stopped to take some pictures of the marshy area near us and the reflections of the mountains. There are a lot of bird in that area and I looked up and saw some very unique birds. I told Rich they looked like black birds with yellow heads. I looked them up. They are yellow-headed blackbirds. Go figure!