Radiation... 6 Down, 27 To Go!

     Radiation has been a cake walk so far compared to my chemo experiences. Because it is so early into radiation, I have not yet experienced any side effects. I know they will come within a week or so, but until then, I can smile knowing that I have a little more time to get stronger before I need to deal with the fatigue that I have been warned about.

 

    The last five days, I have had lots and lots of bone pain in my legs, back, and shoulders. I THINK it was because my platelets and hemoglobin were still very low and my poor bones were working "double time" to try to get all the necessary rebuilding done since my last chemo really brought my counts waaaaay down again. To help the "building" process, I take my prenatal vitamins and a B12 supplement. One Golden Thread here is that for everyone else taking prenatal vitamins, they are probably fighting off morning sickness...NOT me!!!  :-)

 

     Radiation is every day, Monday through Friday. It is a quick, painless process. I get my own hospital gown from the cupboard, go into a dressing room and undress from the waist up. I put on the lovely rose colored hospital gown and wait in an a sort-of-private area (not out in the general waiting room) until the radiation technicians call me. I really shouldn't say "wait" because as I come out with my gown on, the two technicians are almost always standing there waiting for me.

 

The technicians and I walk into a huge radiation room that has a VERY large machine in the center of the room. I lie on a hard plastic bed/board/table and get into position for radiation. My right arm is up over my head holding on to a peg, my left arm is at my side with my hand under my hip, and my head is turned (or more accurately..."cranked") to the left.

 

The technicians move the machine into place above me and line up all the markers with my lovely tattoos to make sure the radiation is going to the right spots. Then the technicians leave the room so they are not exposed to the radiation. They can see and hear me on their monitors so if I ever needed to stop the process for any reason, they could stop it.

 

     As soon as they leave the room, the clicking, whirring, and buzzing begins. The machine delivers the radiation beams, rotates over me and to my sides, clicks, whirrs and buzzes again several times until all the fields on my body have been radiated. I feel nothing during the process. That's a Golden Thread for me! It's painless!

 

 I have counted several times and the actual "radiating" is about 15 to 25 seconds. That's not very long! It is repeated several times at various angles.

     The technicians then come back into the room and tell me I am done and am free to go. The undressing and redressing probably takes longer than the actual radiation process!

 

     My first radiation was on Sept. 25th. That one was scary because I had never had it done before but now, after five treatments, radiation is becoming routine too, just as chemo had become routine. Crazy how life changes...saying that radiation is now a comfortable routine!!!

 

     I am thankful for the fact that radiation decreases my chances of cancer recurrence in the radiated areas. For people like me who have cancer in a breast and a lymph node, the chance of local recurrence (same breast) in five years is about 16%. Radiation therapy can reduce this risk to about 2%.

 

     I hope you have learned a little about the radiation process.

Thanks to all of you for your continued thoughts and prayers. They sustain me.