Radiation therapy seems to be going well so far. Knock on wood.

The simulation appointment was back on July 13. That involved getting into the machine, getting measured, getting scanned, and getting like 4 tiny tattoos. Just dots. To make it easy for them to line me up in the radiation machine. They also made a “bolus” – this is a thin sheet of material that they melt and form over my torso – it is used to moderate the way radiation penetrates my skin. They put it in a microwave oven or something, and it was pretty hot when they put it on me. My skin was flushed afterward.

The simulation appointment took about an hour. The whole time I was lying on my back with my arms stretched overhead. What with the position, and the tattoos, and the bolus, I was pretty sore and tired afterward. Then I had to wait for the radiation onocologist to develop my treatment plan. They called to set up the radiation appointments on Friday the 25th.

Day One, last Monday, was also a longish appointment. I had to get all set up in the radiation machine, and they took a bunch more measurements and more scans, and talked numbers and stuff. There were two radiation techs, and then the radiation oncologist looked at some things and adjusted some things. And then I had my very first radiation treatment, which only took a few minutes.

The other appointments were super fast and easy. The bolus is used about every other treatment – they do a couple of treatments with it and one without. If it’s a no-bolus day you just get all the treatments without. On Wednesday they put some probes on me to measure the exact dose of radiation I am getting.

The worst part of it is the drive. Since the West Seattle Bridge is closed there is a ton of crap traffic to go through. That’s as much as 45 to 50 minutes each way. Last week I got two days of exceptionally horrible traffic and was super stressed out. So I decided I need to leave a whole hour before the appointment starts.

They do have special radiation oncology patient parking in the parking garage, and you get a parking pass to put on your dashboard for those spots. It took me until Friday to actually find them, but they are very convenient.

So I park, and from those spots I can run right in to the South Building without having to take stairs or an elevator, and then run along the underground tunnel to the Radiation Oncology department. Since I am a regular radiation patient, I check in at the front desk and they send me straight back to the changing area. There are lockers, and hospital gowns in the changing rooms. I take off all my top clothes, and put on a hospital gown, tie in the back. Then I go to the waiting area and the radiation techs take me right back into the radiation room to set me up.

There’s a bed you lie on, with a nice support for your knees, and you put your arms up over your head. They make sure you’re positioned just right. Sometimes there’s the bolus, sometimes not. Then they leave the room. You lie very still, and then they do the radiation. And it is really fast. Just a few minutes. Since I can’t take a cell phone and there’s no clock in the room (that I’ve seen, anyway – maybe next time I should look for one), I don’t know exactly how long. Five minutes maybe?

Then I’m done. I get up, I get my hospital gown back, go change back into my regular clothes, and GTFO.

I set up an Excel spreadsheet to track my treatments and and side effects. It’s funny to think that I’ve already got a week done – the time went pretty fast.

I got a prescription cream for my skin. I had thought the radiation was going to be limited to my breast and underarm areas but it’s actually a much bigger field than that. On my first radiation appointment they drew the radiation treatment areas on me, so I would be able to see where it is. It goes all over the right half of my chest, up to the base of my neck, about an inch around the right breast, and the whole underarm area.

I asked on Friday if I should stop shaving my underarm during the radiation treatments. They said yeah, probably.

Putting the cream on – it’s a very dense cream and one of the techs suggested that I mix it with a regular light unscented lotion to make it easier to put on. So that’s what I’ve been doing. It’s kind of a PITA chore to do. Also my skin is kind of numb since the surgery, and the tissue expander is weird, so it just feels weird to do.

I did feel extra tired getting up on Friday morning, so that’s the first inkling of possible fatigue.

My skin feels more or less OK so far. But it’s only been a week! My muscles around my underarm area did feel a little sore by the end of the week, but not much.

I had a migraine on Saturday. Probably because even though this seems to be going well, it’s a huge thing and a new thing and I have to do it every day. But if I have to crash every Saturday during this treatment I think it is ok that I do that, and not feel like I have to be super productive. I have cancer and we’re still in the middle of a pandemic. So I can give myself a break. Or lots of breaks.

I also have talked some to my boss about taking several days off during Radiation Month, and last week I found some proposed days to take, so I will see about getting those approved tomorrow.