Day of Radiation

I couldn't tell you if all folks who go for radiation treatment's appointments look like mine but I thought I'd share what mine looks like.    I'm sure they vary depending on the cancer, the person, and the doctor.  I've learned that everyone's chemo treatments are different as well from the types of medicines they are given, the way it is administered, how often it's ministered, how long they are treated, and I'm sure there are even more variables than I am aware of because this is all so new to me.

I arrive at the radiation center every day Monday through Friday for my 7:45 appointment.  The waiting room is extremely clean and neat but doesn't have that "hospital smell."   The staff are friendly and greet me and everyone else that comes in like a friend when you sign in at the check-in on their very modern computerized check in screen.  You have a seat but never for long.  There are only a few other folks usually this early and they vary in their appearance.   You have the folks that are friendly, most are quiet and reserved, and a few appear very sad.   Some mornings very young children are wheeled in for their appointments.   You hear your name called over the loud speaker to come to the treatment area.   When you come to your first appointment, they assign you a specific room and that's the room you go to each time.  When I hear my name, I head to treatment room 4, the purple room, where I am greeted by 2 more friendly staff members.   Then I climb on the table and sit up on my knees,  pull my pants below my "cheeks", and lay forward on this specialized table that has a small hole for your belly to go into.   Then you must lay like dead weight while they shift you around until the small freckle sized tattoos they gave you the first day line up exactly.  The table moves up close to an amazing machine.   It has two arms on the sides that are square and a large round contraption on top.   When they all begin moving, it sounds at first like a space ship is landing and then goes into more of a low whirring noise.  You cannot help but be amazed at the technology as you watch it's precise movements and the massiveness of the machine.  When they've taken a few x-rays to be sure you are lined up on both sides, the machine zaps you on one side for a few seconds, the other side for a few seconds and then your back side for a few seconds.  During the process, you'll hear the technicians change some kind of plates between the zaps.  Then the table pulls out.   I immediately pull my pants up while I await for the table to still and lower.   They grab my chemo bag off my back and hand it to me after I get off the table.   We say our good byes and I head out the door.  The whole process takes around 15 minutes.  I've tried to get my husband to put good morning on my cheeks for when I have to moon the workers each morning and he just won't cooperate. I figured if they had to look at behinds all day that mine could at least be funny.   They died laughing when I told them how I wanted to surprise them.   I would've been the first.   I'm still working on the husband.  So all week I've showed my behind but I promise to try to behave this weekend.

Prayer requests:  my white blood cell counts are low, please pray they go up.

Praise reports:   I haven't had to prepare a meal since my first week of treatments.   My family has been totally spoiled.   We haven't had to stress about the multiple co-pays either due to the generous deposits to our emergency checking account.  I was able to share the Lord at my chemo appointment which I'll share in another post.  I also have only taken pain medicine to sleep one night this week and I haven't had to take the medicine for vomiting at all.   So except for the poison that is dripping in me 7 days a week and my insides getting daily fried, I'm doing pretty well.

Thanks to everyone for the amazing support and mostly for the prayers!