Friday was two-ish weeks of radiation and my 9th treatment. Unfortunately, I did not see that other lady again. Luckily for her, she must have had her radiation at her normal time earlier in the day and everything went much more “to plan” than the day I encountered her.
Everyone must have been on their game, because I laid down almost completely in position and we were able to start treatment almost immediately. There are two “panels” that come out when I start my treatment. These are the radiographs that are done before we start treatment, to make sure that all of my organs are in the right position and my stickers are all lined up for the right treatment area. One of those panels is the x-ray source (the thing that shoots out the x-rays) and the other is the x-ray source detector (the thing that captures those x-rays and measures a whole bunch of things to form the image). This is what allows them to take those images. Then there is the “treatment” arm, which is the thing that dispenses the much higher dose of X-ray radiation for treatment.
What is interesting is that they don’t always check the same side first I’ve noticed. Usually they must check from my right side, but occasionally they look on top first. I actually think that sometimes, I’m not sure they do both directions. I’m also not sure if that is exactly what they are imaging, but I think it must be. I believe when they are imagine my side, I can see the panel to my right and I cannot see the treatment arm. I think when they are imagine me on top I see the treatment arm to my right which would mean the panels are above and below me. They usually start treatment from whatever side they did the last radiograph from. It’s really hard to see what’s going on given my position.
Other goings-ons
Since Friday was Veteran’s Day, I was off from work and Sean decided to take work off. He hadn’t felt too great on Thursday night so we got a late start on Friday morning. We dropped Maddie off at school and then took Ginny for a walk. It started raining from the hurricane while we were walking her and it was pretty constant. Sean had to do just a little bit of work when we got back and then we drove over to Little Italy to pick up some lunch from Ovenbird Bakery. They make delicious varieties of bread, so their sandwiches are pretty amazing. I also love their Chocolate Chirp Cookies.
When we got back, we decided to watch a movie at home! It’s funny, but we don’t really do that much anymore. Movies are too long and when we watch them after Maddie goes to bed they are over so late and she still wakes up at the same time so we get no sleep. It’s rarely ever worth it. We usually end up watching shows so it’s only like an hour commitment instead. We watched Enola Holmes 2. I’m pretty sure it’s for younger kids, but they are very entertaining movies! Plus, it was a relatively light movie instead of some of the very heavy movies out there. We wanted to go see The Banshees of Inisherin. The only problem was that we wouldn’t have been able to go until 1 PM and probably wouldn’t have been able to finish it before I had to go to radiation. Plus, it was just nice to lay on the couch and watch a movie.
Saturday we took Maddie to her first gymnastics class! It seemed to be a lot of fun for her. Her two coaches were probably teenagers and they didn’t look exactly thrilled to be there. Maddie was bouncing and moving around the entire time. She could not sit still. It was like she had ants in her pants! Our only complaint is that she probably needs to be there for hours to get all of her energy out!
Then we went down to the River House and Sean and I both had the opportunity to ride outside in 70-degree sunshine! It was lovely, because Sunday the temperature dropped quite a bit and it was very windy. I used the day to put up our Christmas lights. Don’t worry, I’m not turning them on yet, but I wanted to get them up before it got too cold.
I’m back to the “beam” on Monday with another full week of radiation! I also get to spice things up with a Herceptin infusion on Wednesday. How thrilling!
Want a Cuke? 
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