Friday, July 10, 2015

Week IV Radiation Treatments Complete or What they didn't tell me upfront!

Just returned from the hospital a while ago after completing radiation treatment #18. That makes four weeks down with two weeks to go or 10 more treatments. The technicians gave me a new surprise today, the dirty rats. I was happy to be ending this week's regime of travel and treatments.

As I lay on the treatment machine table waiting for the radiation treatment to begin I was thinking about what I'd like to do this weekend. The big donut swirled around to its position above my head to begin the treatment. Everything was as usual as the port on the radiation dispenser opened and the ray gun began its job.

Hmm, something didn't feel right. I began to feel an odd tingling sensation in the area being treated. The machine stopped at the end of the first dose and then reconfigured for the second dose further up my arm. As it began to hum with the second dose I could definitely feel the prickly sensation that had started with  the first dose. Both of these doses lasted about 20 seconds. The machine made two more short one second blasts in different locations on the front side of my arm. When done the machine donut began to rotate around the table and the table begins to rise to a height of six feet above the floor. The radiation dispenser then has rotated until its under the table to send radiation to my arm and shoulder to my back.

I received two blasts of radiation as usual about 20 seconds long each. Well it wasn't business as usual. This time it initially felt like an electric shock all across my arm and right shoulder. As each 20 second episode goes on I can feel the heat rising where the dose is aimed. I was glad when the port closed on the machine.

The lead technician then walks into the treatment room and says "Hey we got you this time didn't we?" She began to lower the table to help me up and she tells me sorry, but they've been waiting for me to begin to feel the radiation. They were watching me on a monitor and saw me flinch when the two last doses were being delivered. They never know when the pain from the dosages delivered will be felt by an individual patient. So they don't say anything until the pain begins to be felt. Seems if you tell someone up front they make themselves sick in anticipation of the point of change/pain.

She says cheer up, there's good news and bad news. I said tell me. She says the good news is I have only ten more treatments over the next two weeks. The bad news is that the pain will get a little worse with each treatment.

So there it is. I sit here typing with my shoulder and arm aching looking forward to this for another two weeks. This has been and will continue to be an odessy of sorts as I deal with Merkel Cell Carcinoma.

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