So in usual Becky fashion, I spent the morning trying not to get all worked up about this, but as the time drew closer, the nerves definitely set in. I've spent the past few weeks listening to people tell me how brave I am, how strong I am, how I've got this, blah blah blah. But really, I honestly just wanted to sit in a corner and pretend this had all gone away. But like a good girl, I sucked it up, pulled my big girl panties up, and too myself off to hospital.
After checking in, I went down to the basement level to the radiation areas. This place is huge - so many different treatment areas. Which is great that they can accommodate so many people, but at the same time it's sad and depressing that so many people require this service.
Anyway, I got to the radiation level, where I was greeted by a perky radiologist. He informed me that they only needed the bottom half off - no sexy gown for me! This time I had to put on hospital pants. Not a problem. I was still doing a happy dance that I didn't have to strip naked after all! (it was a silent happy dance in my head - I didn't want anyone to think I was nuts!) My happy dance abruptly ended when I saw that hospital pj pants are NOT at all like the hospital scrub pants I was used to. Instead of the slit and tie up being at the side like scrub pants, these pants had a slit and tie up IN THE BLOODY MIDDLE! How the hell am I mean to cover up a giant gap in the middle? And why?? Is this designed for men who need easy access to flop it out? Too many inappropriate thoughts in my head, in such an inappropriate place!
This caused me a bit of a delay in getting changed as I tried to work out whether to just let my belly button be on display, or put on a housecoat backwards? No, that looked stupid. Ummm, what to do, what to do. In the end, I did what any respectable girl in this situation does. I grabbed the housecoat and carried it in front of me, effectively covering up the gap in my pants! Genius!
I had just sat down when they called me in. Good god people, give me a chance to get psyched up for this! Ugh! I dutifully followed mr perky down to the radiation room, where I was greeted by two more smiling faces. I have to say, if nothing else, these people are very good at putting you instantly at ease. I lay down on the table and had my legs propped up in some sort of medieval device designed to hold my legs in place to limit my movement. I was then told to lift my top up to my braline, and pull my pants and panties down past my hips. WTF? Oh yeah, the tattoos....they need to see the tattoos. No time for modesty (or a dinner date it would seem) and before I knew it, I was exposed for all to see. Thrilling stuff.
They spent a long time pushing and pulling me into position - apparently this is the 'worst' part of the radiation itself, the time involved in getting your tattoos lined up exactly. Once they're happy with how you're placed, they do an xray to check your bones are in the same spot as the planning ct. Umm, sure, you better check that - my left hip bone is known for taking a wander up to my rib cage on occasion......
Finally they were happy that I was in the perfect position, and after a reminder to NOT MOVE A MUSCLE AT ALL (but you can keep breathing normally) they left the room and proceeded to zap away. The radiation machine itself is strange - it's shaped like a UFO and it rotates around your body, stopping every now and then to click click click (i'm going to assume that's the good stuff being zapped into my body) and before I knew it, it was all over. (it took 2 songs on the radio to be zapped...was nice of them to play music for me!)
One odd thing I noticed - when they were moving me around, I kept feeling 'tickling' around my tattoo marks, but thought nothing of it. When it was finished, before I was allowed to move, I felt more tickling around my marks, and they were calling out numbers. (don't know what that was about, might need to ask next time). It wasn't until later that I discovered they had actually drawn more markings on each of my tattoos, I'm guessing to highlight where the little spots are. So now I have tiny tattoos smaller than a freckle surrounded by GIANT lines pointing to the spot. And I'm not allowed to scrub them off. I feel so dirty!
So all in all, the whole thing was less than half an hour, totally painless, easy peasy. No side effects - apparently that part is a cummulative effect and will take a week or two before I feel like crap. Something to look forward to. So that's it, treatment #1 done and dusted. Same time, same place for #2 on Monday (snow storm in the forecast for Monday, great stuff!)
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