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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Radiation

So, where did I leave off...

The misunderstanding of what "starting March 22" meant?

Yes, I did GO there on March 22nd, and I got my body mold made and my pin-prick tattoos. Then I went home and the doctors and physicists spent a week planning.

This past Monday, I was invited to return on Tuesday for "X-rays to check to plans" (loosely paraphrased).

At that time, all looked good. I got a chance to talk to a radiation oncologist who actually has a personality and made eye contact. I told him about my concerns and the NYTimes article that raised them. He reassured me that I could rest easy because he was the doctor quoted in the article and he and all of his workers do not rely solely on the machines.

Eh, whatever. It's nice to think you have control over your workers, but I'll take that as the best I'm going to get.

Then they suggested that since I was there and everything was set up that I should just go ahead and get my first treatment. So I did.

Now, I go every day for a 10:15 appointment.

Two days down, 26 more to go.

2 comments:

Amy Scott said...

how long does the treatment take?

dawn h-s said...

In the treatment room maybe total time = 20 minutes (I really need to check the in and out times). Being zapped maybe 8-10 minutes, with part of that time the machine moving into each of the 4 positions. Yesterday, I was out by 10:40 after a 10:15 appointment. The drive there takes 30 minutes if traffic is good. Today, the waiting room part took forever because it was the first o the month and every. single. person. using. the. hospital. had. to. register. and they didn't have any extra registration people.