Radiation Day 5 of 20 – 25% Complete!

Total Time of Appointment: 30 minutes

I’ve decided I’m going to track the amount of time from when I enter the parking garage until I pay the parking stub! It’s reliable and I won’t forget it, because it’s all on my parking ticket. Today’s treatment held no big surprises, it was just same old, same old. I came in, changed into my robe, got on the table, let them push me around into position, got zapped and done!

In terms of side effects, I don’t think I’m experiencing any. It’s hard because the anticipation is agonizing! I know that I will probably experience some side effects and I know they should show up this week, but how subtle or non-subtle will they be? Only time will tell, but until then it leaves you wondering things like: Does my skin look more red? Can I tell where I’m getting the treatment? Does my skin hurt?

My cold seems to finally be going away. I didn’t totally lose my voice this time like my previous colds earlier in the year. It has meant that I haven’t slept very well for the last few nights though, so I’m hoping that as I get better I recover with some better, more restful nights of sleep. It’s challenging because there is so much research out there that suggests getting high quality sleep is so incredibly important. But some people have trouble with that. And when you worry about how you aren’t getting high quality sleep, it makes it harder for you to go to sleep! It’s horrible!

Because of my cold, I haven’t been able to ride my bike very much. I last rode on Wednesday before my treatment. On Thursday, I felt really tired and worn out, and I was afraid I was over doing it. On Saturday I felt particularly worn down and went to sleep really early. With the time change, I think I ended up getting almost 11 hours of sleep! That might have been a combination of my cold and being tired from the radiation as well. Today I got back on the bike, but when very easy. I will probably go very easy until I’m sleeping better again. Better sleep will be a better barometer for being past this cold.

I also asked about the flat back thing today as well. Their answer was somewhat expected, like the fact that some of the patients they treat are on the older side and don’t necessarily have flat backs anymore. They explained that they like flat backs a lot because the flatter you lay, the easier it is to reproduce your position. I guess if people don’t have flat backs, it probably means they are holding tension somewhere. Some days they get on the table and they lay a little flatter because their muscles are more loose and other days their back is really tight. That just means from day to day their back can be in different positions. They also told me that a back can lay flatter depending on whether you turn your head to the right or left. All of that plays into whether or not they can quickly get you into position to do your treatments.