I went in today to get measured for my radiation that'll start on Monday. First of all, let me admit that my basic math skills need to be sharpened, because I got all excited that if I started Monday I'd be done on my birthday, but it turns out that starting Monday means I'm done a week before my birthday. Whatever, I'll take it.
Anyway, getting measured involves getting a CT scan so they can figure out where inconvenient things like your lungs and throat are and how they can radiate you completely without hitting those. There were some surprising things about the whole CT experience that were different from the PET-CT scan I had about six months ago. First of all, the ceiling of the CT in the radiation oncology suite is covered in pictures of cherry blossoms. I thought perhaps they changed it according to the season, but apparently it's always springtime there. It was also strange that I was told to keep my shoes on but then they rubber-banded my feet together to keep me from moving around. Wearing boots with your feet held tight by rubber bands is not my idea of comfort. There was also a strange doughnut-shaped pillow that I had to rest my head on.
Before starting, they stuck some wire-like stuff on me to use as places to measure from and then I got to slide through the machine. The images they ended up with (I made them show me!) were pretty cool. There was a specific area that they are going to hit with deeply penetrating radiation, with extra across my scars because apparently that's where cancer is most likely to re-occur (perhaps because scar tissue is fast-growing? I'm not sure), and then an area where they'll use some kind of shallow radiation so it won't hit my lungs. They'll get my lymph nodes and breast but not my neck.
Once they figured this out, they came out and drew all over me with marker and then the nurse casually said, "I'm going to tattoo you now." This is something you'd think they'd have mentioned the last three times I'd come in, right? I was totally not prepared - I asked if the tattoos came off and the nurse looked at me like I was crazy and said, "They're tattoos. No they don't come off." Perhaps for some people this is no big deal but for me it seemed somehow barbaric. But at this point, I didn't really have a choice. The only positive thing was that much of my chest is numb, so it didn't hurt.
So I'm now officially a tattooed woman - four little dots across my chest. And I go in Friday for a dry run to make sure all the machines are up and running. Just a few days later radiation starts for real, and assuming all goes well I'll be done April 18th. After that I might have to look into getting a real tattoo - after all, now I'm in the club. Suggestions?
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