Ok
New treatments, new worries.
Monday of this week witnessed the start of the next
round of treatment and as before, I was nervous. I am fully aware of what is to
be involved with this new treatment regime, five sessions of beaming technology
including one session of poison, carried out weekly for the next six and a half
weeks.
Although, knowing what is about to be done to you
doesn't always make it easier to cope with, maybe knowing what to expect, only
creates more apprehension.
So, I get to the radiotherapy department in plenty of
time for my appointment at the New Patient Clinic, this was set up 30 minutes
before my first round with "Varian 1" (my new electro-mechanical
friend, the external beam radiation machine) which meant I had 30 minutes to
chat with a very competent, and sincere nurse who was using every possible
string of positive words to tell me, without scaring me, how much "discomfort"
I am to expect and to use his words, "a substantial amount of discomfort",
severe sunburn to my face and neck, an extremely sore throat to the point of
difficulty in swallowing, a lack of saliva and taste, ulcers inside my mouth,
etc. etc. etc. (these are all things that I have heard before and I’m not sure
it helps to be told them again and again.)
This discomfort is not going to be instant, it is to
gradually build up during the course of my treatment and the first couple of
weeks should be pain free, which is nice as I am looking forward to having a
really gluttonous Christmas meal next week, to help me continue my quest to be
closer to twelve stone rather than ten as I have mentioned before, I do need to
fatten up a little bit more to carry me through the later stages of this new
regime.
Chat over and it's time to get in/on Varian 1, and it
is a big machine, it reminds me of a large CNC Multi Head Punch Press used for
punching out all different kinds of shapes in flat sheet steel and when I am
clamped down onto the bench with my own bespoke face shaped vice (my previously
made mask), I feel even more like a piece of material as I am mechanically maneuvered
around in front of the head of the tool, listening to whirls, bumps, clunks and
servos, unable to see as the mask fits so tight it keeps my eyes closed and
having an imagination like mine, part of me expects a 20mm hole to be punched
in my forehead but I know that's not going to happen.
What does happen, this first time for me on Varian 1,
is that because of a strict "measure twice, zap once" system that the
team have in place, they are unable to carry out my treatment straight away as
the markings on my mask (previously made to line the radiation beam up with my
tumor) didn't match the lasers from this machine, even though they tried for
half an hour. This then resulted in my return to a previous, high definition x-ray
machine, to get new markings placed on my mask, another 30 minutes clamped down
on a table unable to speak or see whilst my mask gets adorned with precision
graffiti, this is then followed by more time spent lying down back on Varian 1,
for treatment this time as all the new markings lined up with the laser beams
perfectly.
Movements, zap, movement, zap, movement and finally
zap. All done, actual treatment time 20 minutes, radiation beams from 3
different directions and all is well, lets do it again tomorrow and on Tuesday
we did. I arrived 10/15 minutes early, 11:20 , had my treatment, and left at 11:50 , Bang On.
Now, we are on Wednesday, the first day of
chemotherapy for this new regime, it's not like the last two rounds of poisoning,
this time and for the next four rounds, I am only being subjected to one type
of poison, however this is still going to take a minimum of 5 hours (or more, I
was there from 9.00 till 4.30 today!) and will be followed by a dose of
radiotherapy. It takes this long because the other non-chemo bags of fluids and
minerals required by my body, have to be delivered through my PICC line too, I
need these because the Cisplatin drains my body of them, let us hope, that this
increased frequency of pollution, doesn't start to "stack up" against
me like the radiotherapy will as a stacking of chemo could quite easily see me
back in the hospital for an unwanted stay.
This is me, Steve Royal, still being poisoned and at
the start of being zapped.
Have a Merry week.
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