What is Radiation?

I am 43% done with radiation!! I keep getting asked what happens with radiation. I go in every day and it takes about 10 minutes from start to finish. In fact, with a 9 minute drive, today it took me 32 minutes from leaving my house until I got home. I go into the office and change into a lovely hospital robe. They have me then lie down on this table...



They described it as large Kitchen Aid. I had never really looked at it before taking the picture. I just went in and got on the table. You can see the blue "pillow" there. (misleading description as it isn't soft in the least) That is where I put my head and reach up to grab hold of the two white posts above it. The pillow is specifically designed for me so I am in the same position every time. It is not a pillow, but a form of some sort. When they made it, they just pumped up something with air to form around me. I guess they used that as a mold, or maybe it was soft material that they pumped up that hardened when they were through. Anyway, the table then gets raised up and back under that large round thing. That is where the radiation (think x-ray) comes out. That moves around me, so it is pointing at different angles. The radiation part is about 2 seconds long - they do about 3 or 4 angles. In that big round thing, there are teeth that move open or shut to direct the rays exactly where they need to be. When all the teeth are open, it is about 10" square. When it is radiating, the openings are about 1-2 inches or smaller. Hard to explain, but that is the best way I can think to explain it. This other picture is of the ceiling. In the CT room, it is of a waterfall in a rain forest. Kind of nice they think of the patient lying there with nothing to look at.

I am starting to feel the effects of the radiation. I have a definite darker "tan" line on my chest. It goes from the mid-line (sternum) and across the bottom of the rib cage. My armpit is getting red also. It also goes up over my shoulder just about where I can reach with my opposite hand and around my side to where I can reach. That quadrant will always be darker than the rest of my skin and will be sensitive to the sun. I need to make sure to always have sunscreen on anything exposed. It is also getting to be more sensitive. I wouldn't say it hurts yet, but for sure it is sensitive on the verge of being itchy (think sunburn). The itchy will get worse and annoying. There could possibly be blisters at it's very worst. I am using aloe and creams to keep the skin moist and soothed. I also switched to a very mild shower soap.

Other than that, I am feeling really good. I went out and did some weeding for about 20 minutes (I had to set the timer or I would just stay out there for far too long). I also sprayed some weed killer for about 2 hours. We have this large yard and along both fence lines is a huge space of nothing but weeds. If it were mine, I'd either plant grass all the way to the fence or build some of it up for planting. We have some "raised beds" - we just nailed together some scrap wood that was left here to make some 6 foot square gardens. There are 3 of them and then another deeper one for tomatoes. Last year, the girls each took one and I had one and we had fun deciding what to plant. N grew a huge sunflower and A got the largest pumpkin. We planted marigolds around the border and since I wasn't up to cleaning it all out in the fall, the marigolds all went to seed and there a thousands of seed in and around each garden bed. We'll have to be diligent about pulling those this spring. They made a nice border, but I thought they'd be about 8 inches tall. They got to be about 2 feet tall and made it hard to get into the rest of the garden. Nova already has a strawberry blossom on one of her plants.

  

It has been really nice weather this past week, which has been our Spring Break. We took a drive out to Kettle Falls, only to find out that the Falls are under a lot of water due to the Grand Coulee Dam which was built back in 1942. I guess no one thought to change the name of the town to signify that there are no longer any falls there. It was a cute town, but it was a long drive and the girls were bored. We did get out and explore an old mission area. The building has been re-built and there was an old cemetery and a large boulder that was used as a sharpening stone by the Natives to sharpen their fishing tools. It is made of amphibolite which is more fine-grained than the local bedrock. All this overlooks Lake Roosevelt which is the lake that now covers the original Kettle Falls. We did go down a side road and were able to view Myers Falls which is part of another river that feeds into the Columbia.

Since I have had radiation every morning, we didn't plan any other trips. It has been such nice weather that the girls have just been playing with neighbors and outside a lot. They even slept in the tent last night. Since last year's backyard sleeping lasted a whole 15 minutes, I gave them about 20 before coming in. No, they lasted all night. We slept with our window open which put us actually closer to them in the tent than when they are in their own beds. They woke up a little cold and got damp from all the dew this morning. It has been a quiet, but good week.