FIRST RADIATION DOSE!

Today is Thursday September 25, 2014.  This morning I had an appointment with the surgeon who would be doing my surgery.  Mom wanted to go with me so I picked her up and then we headed to Golden.  He went over everything and it was all pretty much the same as what I’d already heard.  He explained that I’d need a temporary bag between anywhere from a few weeks to 6 months, but that he was certain he’d be able to reverse it and reattach my colon to my rectum when the time came.  He said, “I think your tumor is high enough that I can do that, but I just want to check and make sure that I know exactly where it is.”  I thought he would be looking at my previous scans or something but then he said, “So do you mind if I take a look with the sigmoidoscope?”

A surprise sigmoidoscopy is worse than a pop quiz.  But I’m always a good patient, so I didn’t mind.  I had to go into another room where they had a short table with a knee rest, and a large TV monitor next to it, with a long black tube hanging beside it.  The nurse showed me how to position myself on the table after I have my pants and undies off.  Then she got the doc.  While the two of them were getting ready to insert the camera I said, “Be careful of my hemorrhoids back there,” and the doctor said, “Oh don’t worry, I see them, I’ll be careful.”  It didn’t hurt but was just a little weird.  Then it got uncomfortable when he blew air into my colon.  I watched the monitor to see what my tumor looked like, but it wasn’t really easy to make heads or tails out of anything.  As long as the doctor knows what he’s seeing that’s all that matters.  He said he saw what he needed and that everything looked good for his plans for surgery. Before we left he gave me his cell phone number and told me to text him any time with any questions I might have.

After that I drove Mom home and then went home to wash up for my radiation appointment.  I wasn’t messy, and in fact I could tell on the monitor how clean my colon still was.  But they used gel to make insertion easier and even though I had wiped up in the office and even used the bathroom afterwards, I still felt like washing up.  Then I had to hurry to the hospital, Lutheran Medical Center, for my first radiation dose. I made it on time but they were running late, so I sat and did the jigsaw puzzle in the patient waiting room.  Someone had started the puzzle from the middle pieces, leaving big islands of puzzle done with hardly any of the edges started.  That drives me nuts.  So I got a good portion of the edge completed before it was my turn to be called in.

There wasn’t anything special about the radiation dose.  I can’t really see much except out of the corner of my eyes.  The machine has arms on the side that come out around me, and as I lay there I can hear it reposition itself around me, turning and whirring.  My tush again was exposed and I could feel a breeze in the room.  I think the only thing I felt from the radiation dose was a light warmth on my tush.  During one of the machine’s repositioning it bumped into my left elbow, and afterwards I let the nurse know.  She said they could move it a little for me next time.  Weight 137.9.