Getting into the Routine

Yesterday was a novelty but today it’s time to get into the routine.

I’d been told that from today onwards I could, if I wished, change into comfortable clothes for the treatment. I’ve decided to do this because it means I can make the treatment different to the rest of the day. By changing clothes when I arrive at the facility I can, I think, in some ways leave the treatment there.

When I arrived at the facility, after a brief wait, I was asked to go through to a second waiting area. There are changing rooms and small waiting room with a TV – which seemed to be stuck on Good Morning or whatever the Phillip and Holly show is called. I changed into some pyjama trousers and put on the non-slip socks I had been given the day before. Apparently these are for safety although it seems to me that the floors are perhaps the least unsafe part of the whole process.

Once in the treatment room, I have to lie on a bed which is part of the radiotherapy machine. It takes a couple of minutes to get into position and while I am doing this I have to confirm my name, date of birth and address – apparently I will be asked this every day.

There are always two radiographers present. After getting me in position and confirming I am who I am, they leave the room and some red lights come on. The bed raises and moves back into the radiotherapy machine – this feels a bit like Thunderbirds when Scott or Virgil gets the call to action from their living room and descend to their aircraft. In fact the bed must be quite high off the gound at this point because the ceiling – which I am staring at of course – seems as close as when I am standing.

After a few seconds the machine does a single rotation around my body. This is a preliminary scan to check my position and alignment and it takes about a minute. After this it all goes quiet for a minute or two – it seems longer – and I assume this is when the radiographers and their computers are processing the quick scan and comparing it with the planning scan that I had a couple of weeks ago. This is followed by a couple of clicks I can feel the bed moving slightly as it is repositioned to ensure the correct alignment. After another very brief pause, the machine kicks into life and does another complete rotation around me. This is the actual treatment and it takes around a minute. I can’t feel anything happening – which is as it should be.

All in all I was probably in the treatment room for less than 10 minutes.

Day Two

Tiredness: 0/10

Side Effects: none