Sixty-Two & Sixty-Three

 Hello!  

I am going to give you a rundown of my radiation treatment.  I realize that most people have never even looked into it, let alone laid down for the procedure.

My oldest three kids go to the neighbors at 9 a.m. to get a ride to school.  My youngest 2 alternate school.  Boston has school Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and Ava takes her turns on Tuesday and Thursday.  When we drop off Ava @ 9 we take Boston with us to the treatment center.  The drive is roughly 25 minutes from dropping Ava off.

The Provo hospital is directly west of the treatment facility.  They do much more there than just irradiate your head where your sneaky body decided to grow a tumor... sneaky body.

9:45 a.m. on Monday through Friday I go into the radiology office.  They main room is a waiting room.  People can get set up with treatments to aid in their cancer removal.  Mine was a nasty tumor.  I really do dislike it.  Left of the reception area is a door with a sign on it that allows patients only to go past it.  When you go past the door there is a hallway that goes to a bathroom at the end of the short billing hallway.  That is where you can turn right and wait in a square room.  

I now have a favorite seat where I wait for a technician to call me back.  I am bald (radiation does wonders for hair growth) and I also wear a face mask.  I usually only get a few minutes on my phone before I am summoned.  

They take me back to THE MACHINE!  We walk past an L shaped bank of computer monitors.  Some monitors seem to be of miscellaneous use and others are definitely for communication with the machine.  There is a space the size of a standard doorway in this room the has a two foot thick door that rolls open and shut.  Radiation is a heck of a thing and I just bask in it!  Sweet sweet radiation!

I remove the hoodie, mask, and cell phone.  I place my glasses down and step up to the table.  I am going to pause here and do my best to describe the machine.  

It's huge. Like quite enormous.  The body of the machine is roughly 4 feet across and taller than I am.  It is roughly 7 feet deep.  I have yet to see the machine move on it's base.  There is a screen on the front center of it that the arm can swivel on. The arm is a c shape with a business side and a receiver side.  The business side is roughly the size of a large pizza stone.  It is metal.  There is a rectangle of glass in the middle and I can hear all kinds of beeping and grinding from within during the radiation.  The disc can rotate 360 to focus the beams.  A doctor told me that this machine has  the ability to bend and focus energy on areas the size of a millimetre.  Thanks Doc!  The other side slides out a panel that look quite like a cookie sheet that can pick up the radiation for the X ray Wednesday.  

The table is super flat.  They set up a head support for me that is nestled in place with two taped down rectangles of blue foam.  There is a leg support pillow that save my legs.  I cross my feet or relax them side by side.  The head support is nice and it has bolts at the base for my face mask.  

They fit a face mask onto me before we started all this.  It was SOOO hot and I freaked out a little.  It is made out of a white mesh and hangs to the table so it can be bolted and I am basically a radiation victim ;)

They hand me the blue foam doughnut and we are ready to get to it.  There machine and the program must be in perfect alignment.  Any separation and the machine will not go buzz and send out the doom ray.  If the bed that I am on does not require movement the machine can move to zap me.  There is a flash of light, purple, that hits me (it is probably from inside my head) and a buzzing sound.  Music is playing on the speakers all the while so the buzz is totally bearable.  This makes me smell burning plastic even while I am exhaling. I asked a different doctor about it and he said it is from the radiation on my brain.  weee.

The technicians will open the blast door to walk into the room with me and move the table where it needs to be.  They use a remote control that is in the shape of a spatula.  It is covered in tiny buttons that tie into the big machine, the table that I am on, and the room itself.  Too hot to handle if you ask me!  When I am done I get down myself and put on all of my stuff. 

Monday - Regular day

Tuesday - Blood draw at a different location in the first floor

Wednesday -X ray day

Thursday - Regular day

Friday - see the Doctor day

Weekends are off!

The radiation appointments were 30 strong.  I have 3 left!  They will give me the mask when I am done.  I take chemo in the form of a pill on Monday through Friday.  It's a pill.  Like any other pill.  When I am done with the radiation I get one month off.  Then I go in for 6 months of higher dose chemotherapy.  Higher counts of the pill.  weee.  I will get checked regularly early on and they will slow but never stop.  

This is my life.  Thanks body!  You wretched cancer maker! I hope I get so many years from all of this.  My kids are tiny and this is a cruel joke.  I want a full life.  I love my wife.  She is the best.  I love my kids. Bridger, Addison, Brooklyn, Boston and Ava.  You are remarkable treasures that I will love forever.

Bye for now! 

-Ryan