The Real Radiation Machine

This is my radiation machine:



First I get into one of those lovely hospital gowns before they take me into the radiation room. There I lay on the bed, grab the handles at the top, and shimmy myself down into the impression pillow of my upper body so that everything fits. Then the techs rubber band my feet and push a little here pull a little there so that I am all lined up with the coordinates for the radiation.

When they have my body all adjusted just the way they want, the techs leave the room (and tell me to wave at them if anything feels wrong).  The bed then slides up to the machine and does a little back and forth dance until it lines itself up correctly.

The arms on the machine lower themselves down and they rotate around. There is a little buzzing and beeping and the big round arm stops a little sideways of my chest and blasts in the radiation. The rotation and the radiation happens twice. Once The techs leave and the machine starts it takes about 10 minutes. I didn't feel a thing (except one of my arms went to sleep rom being above my head so long).

Modern Medicine is just amazing!

Getting Ready for Radiation

  This is the machine they used to map my esophagus on Monday. It looks an awful lot like my CT scanner, so I am not sure it is the machine that will deliver the radiation. If it is not, I will take a picture on Tuesday and add it to the blog.

  This is a mold of my upper body. it will make sure I am laying in the same place just the exact same way each time.  I got a third tattoo, too. They wrote all over my sides and chest with a sharpie and took pictures ... I am impressed with how precisely targetted the treatments will be.

I am supposed to reach up and grab the handles so my hands don't figit.  They also wrap my feet in a giant rubber band so my legs don't twitch. And then they will shoot me with radiation for about five minutes.

I start radiation the 18th with a dry run, just to make sure there are no problems. Then, beginning Wednesday the 19th  I will have the treatments Monday - Friday until June 5th.

It has been fun to be back to work and I appreciate all the kindness everyone has shown me! The radiation may cause a sunburn like effect, or it may not. It might cause me to have heart burn-like symptoms since it is my esophagus we are treating, but they have medicine to alleviate that, should it happen. Since the side-effects are so minor I asked for the last appointment of they day and that will allow me  to continue to work.

I am anxious and excited to see you all again! I hope you all have a lovely weekend and a Happy Easter!

Visit with Dr. Aye, March 29

Mark and I went to Seattle to meet with my surgeon, Dr. Aye last Wednesday. It was for my 6 week check-up after he removed my left lung.

If you will notice the right lung is a little bit larger than the left and it has 3 lobes, where the left only has 2. So, I got to keep the better lung, the "right" lung.

The heart sits a little back and between the 2 lungs. and the trachea comes partway down between the lungs. As with a lot of our organs and senses, when we lose one, often other things get stronger to compensate. For example; many blind people have heightened senses of smell and/or hearing. As a result of the little bits of exercise I have been able to do since coming home from the hospital, my right lung has increased a little in size. It has started to push the trachea and the heart a little left of center! Which is a good thing - one we will hope continues.

Dr. Lu and Dr. Aye want me to do radiation and we will meet with Dr. Lawenda on Friday the 7th to figure that out. I had those 2 tiny lymph nodes in my media-stenium in October. the cleaned them out when I had the media-stenectomy and they have not come back. But just in case there are tiny "seeds" of cancer hiding in there we will do radiation as a preventative measure.

Thank you to all of you who read and send me comments about this blog. Thank you for your texts, your cards, your visits, your good thoughts... I saw a commercial after the Gonzaga game that said the hardest part of fighting any cancer is your mentality. My doctors have said the same thing. Without your constant concern and keeping connected, Mark and I aren't sure we could have come this far, certainly it would have been much, much harder without you. Thank you.

I'll let you know how the radiation goes.