Didn't go as planned...

Just as the title says, today didn’t go quite as planned. When I got up this morning, I thought I would be going alone to my first radiation treatment. I was really glad when my old climbing partner, Alan, text me to find out what time I had to be at my appointment. It was nice to know that I didn’t have to be there by myself. When I got to my appointment, Christy had taken off work to surprise me by being there. I really have some great friends and a great wife.

When I was called in to the treatment room, I was taken into a large room with an automatic steel door. The walls were VERY thick. The machine takes up about half of the room and there is a table to lie on. The first thing the technicians had me do was take off my shirt and lie on the table so they could position me on the table the right way. After that, they left the room to do an x-ray. When they came back, they did some marking on my back then went out for another x-ray. After this, the nurses had to stop the treatment because they didn’t feel comfortable with my position on the table. The key to doing radiation therapy is that you have to be in the exact position every treatment session. With the close proximity of the tumor to my spine, the technicians want to make sure the high-doses of radiation don’t interfere with my spine. They didn’t feel that was possible with the way the CT people did the “mapping” for my treatment plan. With my doctor’s consent, they had me go back to the CT to get re-mapped.

So, I had to start the planning process all over again. We started out by doing a mold of the side of my head lying on the table so that my head will be in the same place every time. This thing looks like a small pillow that stinks really badly! They lay your head on it, and then it forms and hardens around your head. It even left an imprint of my ear in it. Then they gave me this thing that looks kind of like a bean bag. It’s a clear bag filled with white Styrofoam beads. I laid down on it then the technicians sucked all the air out of it. As they did this, the bag molded against my body and arms. Each day I’ll lay in this mold to make sure I’m in the same position during every treatment. All of this took almost 2 hours. They did the mold thing 4 times before it was right. By the time I got out of there, I was sore, and my back and arms were hurting.

Now we’re back to the waiting game. The doctor will have to look everything over to make a new treatment plan. They will call me with my new “first” appointment when everything is ready. I will let you all know more when I know something.