Not Quite The Start

So, today I had a CT scan. I can’t say I was surprised because I’ve known about it for a few weeks. Since I saw my two consultants in June and July in fact. It’s the latest stage on my journey with prostate cancer – a journey that started just under three years ago. More of that another time.

The scan is part of the planning for a sequence of radiotherapy that I will be starting during September. CT stands for computed tomography and the scan makes use of computer-processed combinations of many X-ray measurements taken from different angles to produce cross-sectional images of a specific part of the body. This allows my consultants and radiographers to “see” inside my body without surgery so that they can plan to where to target the radiation beams during my treatment. Planning is essential because everyone – me especially – wants to target the area containing the cancerous cells without doing too much damage to the good stuff surroung them.

Before the scan, a radiologist had explained to me that I would need to have an empty bowel and a full bladder. This helps to keep, as far as possible, sensitive organs away from the area that will be targeted during the radiotherapy. Believe me it was quite tricky judging how much water to drink and when during the morning to ensure I arrived at the clinic ready as per instructed.

The scanning process itself was quick and painless. In fact it only took about five minutes from when I entered the room to being told it was all over and I could get up and go. I’d been told it would take about ten minutes and I was just settling in and it was all over!

I had to lie very still. I was on my back with my head and feet in a polystyrene supports to help me stay in the same position. Another piece of polystyrene shaped like a shallow hump-backed bridge raised and supported my thighs, presumably to tilt the pelvis slightly to help with the scan. Some small self-adhesive plastic buttons were stuck to my stomach to help align and calibrate the CT scanner. Apparently I will be adopting exactly the same position for the treatments.

You’ve probably seen a CT scanner on TV or the web. It’s the one that looks like a time machine with a big upright circle and a bed in the centre. Once I was in position the bed was controlled automatically to move me in and out of the circle and hence the scanning beams. The machine makes very little noise when it’s working – unlike the MRI scanner which sounds like a steam hammer – and you can’t feel anything happening.

I need the radiotherapy because there are small traces of cancer cells in what is known as the prostatic bed. That’s part of the body where the prostate is usually found. My prostate was removed in January 2017 following a cancer diagnosis in the Autumn of 2016. After the surgery, regular PSA – prostate specific antigen – tests had suggested the cancer had gone. But earlier this year there was a small, but detectable, reading in one of my blood tests. My consultants decided that the best course of action now is to have a programme of radiotherapy to kill the cancerous cells once and for all. At least that’s the plan.

I’ll be starting my treatment in mid-September and it will last around seven weeks. That’s every weekday until early November. I don’t suppose it will be much fun, especially after the first week or so, and my intention is to write a short diary every day to tell how it’s going.