OK, you’ll have to forgive me as I am a day behind with the news (babies and back to work eating up all of my time) but yesterday (Wednesday) I started my 15 day course of radiotherapy. Before that happened though, I should let you know a little bit about how I got there from my last post and the trip to the mould room.
It all began last week with a planning meeting. Here I got to try on my new mask for the first time and make sure it fitted. It did! They then took me into the simulator. This is a machine very similar to the radiotherapy machine itself, but it only takes x-rays. In the room there are nice “medical green” lasers that they line up with your neck. They then use the cross hair from the x-ray and these laser points to map out the area to be zapped. The x-rays are checked to see what physical structures are “in the way” and the field widened \ narrowed \ lengthened \ shortened to the specifications of the specialist consultant doc. Then it gets all “arts and crafts” again as the technician draws on a few dotted lines with a marker pen, and not even a ruler, which will then be used to give me “ultimate sun burn.” The result is a mask, all marked up, as below. This mask is to become my new mate as I will wear it day in, day out for the next 15 13 days.
Not quite the mask of Tutankhamun but you get the idea
Next was a CT scan to get the contours of my neck \ chest. This is important to make sure that I get an even distribution of radiation through the thicker and thinner parts of my neck \ chest, more on that later. But it meant another 30 minutes in “the mask.”
So then it was on to day one of the radiotherapy. The worst part of the whole thing is the travel. Its about a 45 minute drive from home \ work to Clatterbridge via a nice toll road at £1.40 a pop. Then you have to queue for the car park and get in there in time for your appointment. Oh, then don’t forget the obligatory NHS delays, yesterday it was about an hour, today 30 minutes. Getting there aside, the actual daily procedure is very quick and very straightforward. I get in the machine room, shout my date of birth out (not a very secure identity test, anyone could pretend to be me and get free radiation) then hop on the table. Mask goes on, bed gets moved into position then the technicians start speaking what appears to be a foreign language to each other whilst making minor adjustments to the table and lining me up with more nice green laser beams. Then they leave the room and the machine kicks in.
The Big Boy (or Machine V6-1 as it is commonly known)
The treatment comes out of the circular bit on the top that is hanging over. What you don’t get to see, but I do, is a big square area with a cross hair on it, this is the sniper’s gun sight. This area is lined up, but then the “magic” happens. Loads of lead “fingers” move into shot from each side of the square, blocking out the radiation and leaving a hole open that matches the treatment area. This hole is very precise and built using the CT scan mentioned above. I get zapped and the fingers move again to create a shape that looks like the top of my shoulder and side of my neck. I get zapped again. This is to make sure the deeper tissue gets the same dose as the rest of me. Finally the whole damn machine rotates 180 degrees so that the circular bit it underneath me, the lead fingers rearrange and the same area gets zapped the same 2 times from underneath. This all takes about 5 minutes and I don’t feel a thing, it’s very anti-climactic. I get let out of the mask and then off I pop, back through the tunnel to home \ work.
The total amount of radiation I am getting is 30 gray (gy) over 15 fractions (simply the days they are dividing it into). This is good as the technician told me that this means the intent is to cure! The other way Hodgkin’s can be treated is 20gy over 5 fractions, but this is only to relieve symptoms. The area they are getting encompasses all the lymph nodes in my neck, from under my jaw to my collar-bone. This is mainly for prophylactic reasons, to make sure that if the lit up node was anything and if any cells from the lit up node (that probably wasn’t anything but just in case) had moved along the node chain, they would be got as well. The good news is that my spine is not in the field, neither is my throat (or the important bits anyway) and neither is my thyroid (a lot of hodeg patients get zapped via the thyroid and end up on thyroxin in a few years time). The side effects? Sore skin, maybe a sore throat and a few out-of-pocket toll road expenses. On this plus side I am listening to plenty of Bon Jovi on iPhone as I travel.
So, that’s it. I shall check in again before or around the end of the rads to let you know if I grew a new head, but until then its as above, over an over again. Tie that in with a full-time return to work and a colicky baby and you have me for the next 3 weeks.
Oh and I just noticed a have had almost 11,000 hits on my blog and I am delighted to say that someone got here by googling “livin’ on a prayer,” wow! Maybe I should start advertising!
Cheers
At last, an update. Pressure works.
Glad to hear it’s not too hardcore. Do you get to keep the mask after?
Green laser beams! Awesome, I just assumed they’d be red. But Jedi lightsaber green, well you’re sorted mate.
(Did you Google how to spell Tutankhamun?…)
Did YOU Google Tutankhamun to make sure I spelled it right in the first place? I actually googled “tuttencarmoon” and looked out for the; “did you mean…”
Of course I did, I’m not Gregoire!
Keep on going. The end of the road is in sight at last. You have other far more important things to concentrate on now so the Hodge can move over for ever. He’s had more than enough of your time! Keep going, mum and dad
Glad to see you’re starting rads. Just finished mine today. It was really easy except for the commute, getting parking, waiting, etc. I got a slight sunburn and the feeling that I swallowed a huge pill without any water, but it wasn’t too bad. I hope it goes well for you!
Great news Cara. Hey, I guess you’re one of the only people on here who can actually understand what I mean about the “lead fingers?” Does the machine look familiar?
Hey man as always you are inspiration and a legend talk you tonight or tomorrow to see how we are fixed for range action
Shaun
Oh yes! I do know that machine, and I know all about the lead fingers. I have the shape of it forever planted in my brain. Did you get tattoos? I got 5 of them, but no mask because they didn’t do my neck, just chest.
No tattoos for me as all the marks go on the mask. I get to keep the mask if I want, but not sure what I would do with it?
[...] back in November, when I spent my days donning a plastic mask and getting zapped by a futuristic particle accelerator, the incredibly great radiographers at the Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology encouraged me to [...]