Day 193 - The Machine

I met the radiation machine for the first time today.  My mapping session did not take place in the actual radiation machine so I had not seen it until this morning.  The machine is much larger than I anticipated and is somewhat intimidating.

The downtown twin of the machine that I will be using. 

I had to go downtown for my radiation dry run at 9 this morning.  My daily radiation treatments will take place at the cancer center near my house, but I had to go downtown for the dry run.  I can only assume that they do these appointments over the weekend because the schedule during the week is so jam-packed.  The hospital was a ghost town this morning, and it was a bit strange to be there.

The two techs who were working this morning got me situated on the table that slides under the radiation machine, slid me in and used the machine to take some images of the left side of my chest and under my left arm.  I had a lot of images taken during my mapping session a week and a half ago using a different machine, but the techs explained that they like to take images pretty regularly so that they are sure to aim the radiation beam in the exact right location. I can appreciate that.  Precision is important.

Once they got the images that they needed, they drew a few more marks on my chest and covered them in tegaderm stickers and told me that I was all set.  Apparently everything lined up to their liking and they deemed me fit for radiation.

After my radiation dry run, my mom and I took Henry to play in the fountains in Charleston's Waterfront Park for a little while. He had a great time, and it was fun to watch him having so much fun.  Once Henry had his fill of the fountains, we stopped for breakfast, ran a few errands and came home to relax for the afternoon.

My mom headed out at around 1:45, and Mike got home at 3.  Mike went to Virginia on Wednesday to play in a friend's country club golf tournament so my mom came down to keep Henry and me company over the weekend.  My mother-in-law came back with Mike to spend the week with us, and my father-in-law will join us mid-week.  Henry eats up all of the attention from his grandparents, and I love having them here.