2nd DAY OF RADIATION

Today is Friday, September 26, 2014.  I tried to get a lot of stuff packed today for the move.  It’s slow going but I think I will be able to pull it off in time.  But between work and all these appointments, there’s just not enough hours in a day to get everything I need accomplished.  I finally took a break to take a shower and then get ready for my radiation appointment.  I got there on time again and sat down to enjoy the puzzle but they called me back right away.  I met one of my other nurses today.  I think there are 4 in all.  As she walked me into the radiation room she said, "I'll be seeing more of you than you will of me, if you know what I mean."  Ha ha, very funny.  I'm glad everyone there is so warm and fun!

Today was a little more difficult than yesterday.  They had a little trouble getting me in the exact position.  After a few minutes they came back in to readjust me because I was off the tattoo marks a little.  I said that I was trying to be really still and they said I was, that it wasn’t me.  They just didn’t have me positioned precisely enough.  They left again and I heard the machine start doing its thing.  Then they came back in to reposition me again.  By now having laid on that hard table as still as possible for the past 10 minutes I was getting really, really uncomfortable.  I could feel my shoulder muscles starting to quiver and I was afraid I’d mess things up.  And the face holder thing (which is also very hard) was jabbing me in the throat.  My right ear was throbbing in pain.  But I was as still as I could be, just to get it over with.

I imagined the radiation zapping my cancer cells, killing them on contact.  Letting my mind drift like that helped take my mind off of trying to hold still.  Finally they were done.  The whole process today took about 20 minutes.  I let them know how uncomfortable I was and they said that on Monday they would work on making sure I was as comfortable as I could be before starting.  Maybe they could move the face rest a little differently they said.  They could see how red my throat was from it.

Before I left another nurse let me know that they had set up my ultrasound for Monday morning at 10:45.  One of the other nurses said maybe they could move my radiation dose that day so that I wouldn’t be making two trips in, and I let her know that I work in the building next door and that I just planned on going back to work in between appointments.

Now back to packing.  It’s been a lot of mental frustration and physical exhaustion but at least having something to do has taken my mind off of sitting around and worrying.  I’d rather be busy, especially now while I’m still feeling physically pretty well.  I had a couple days of feeling great, with my appetite finally coming back, so I made the mistake of eating more than usual.  I regretted it all last night and today, having more pain come back because of it.  I’ll have to go back to eating very lightly again.