Radiation Simulation

I had my radiation simulation appointment this morning. The purpose of this appointment was to get everything set up for my treatments, like how I'm going to be laying on the table. They also did a CT scan so they can have a picture of their target (my guts).
I really love this office. The receptionist greeted me by name when I walked in...and this is only the second time I've been there (I know all she had to do was look at the appointment sheet, but still!). The radiation techs came out to get me pretty quickly. I had to strip from the waist up and put on a hospital gown, then I got to wait a couple more minutes before they took me back to the simulation room. The room had a CT scanner in, no linear accelerator (radiation machine). The two techs that worked with me today were Eva and Rose (and Brooke, Rose's baby girl fetus who is due on Monday). They were both really nice. They had me lay down on the table. At first, they had a plastic headrest that went under my neck and then a support to go under my knees. There was a rectangle shaped bag filled with bean-bag beans under the upper half of my body. Eva and Rose pushed the beans so they were molded to my body and supporting my arms, then sucked all the air out of the bag so it is essentially a mold for me to lay in. I think I mentioned before that they have me laying with my head tipped as far back as possible and my arms positioned with my elbows bent and my hands on my hips. That position allows them to aim the radiation at my neck and armpits better than they could if I just laid flat. Because of this, they weren't sure I'd fit through the CT scanner with my elbows out, so they called Dr Ampey to check. I was really impressed when one of the first things he asked was how Josh was. It means a lot for a doctor who has only met you once to know your family member's names.
Anyway, he determined that my elbows were out far enough and then started asking me questions about the head rest. It was really digging into my neck bones so they ended up trading it out for a different one and lining the new one with a pillowcase to make it softer. They adjusted me a bunch more, repositioned the bean bag a few more times, drew all over my chest and face, then did a quick scan to make sure I was lined up really well. When they came back in, they made my mask. Luckily, I don't have huge claustrophobia issues. They warmed up the material for the mask, then quickly placed it over my face and clamped the frame down to the table. At least that's how it was supposed to work. The first time they did it, one of the clamps wasn't working right and they couldn't get it hooked fast enough before the mask cooled off too much for it to remain pliable. The face part is made of a honeycomb like plastic so it starts off as a sheet, but when they pull it over my face, the honeycombs come apart and it molds to my face. It's kinds tough to describe, so here is a picture of a similar mask. The second time they tried to mold the mask, it again got too cold too fast because the room was really cold. Apparently yesterday the AC wasn't working right and the room was as hot as it was outside (so about 87 degrees). They moved me so the AC vent wasn't blowing on my face and tried again. On the third try, it worked perfectly. They molded the mask to my face, marked me up some more, then left me for 15 minutes for the CT scan. I definitely started getting uncomfortable my then. I'd been laying there in a really awkward position for close to an hour and it was taking a lot of concentration to just lay still. I think one of my arms started trembling because of the position it was in, but I don't think that messed anything up. Eventually, I just started counting, figuring that about 5 min had passed, so if I counted slowly to 600, they'd come back to unhook me around that time. I didn't make it to 300 before they came back, thankfully. They had to mark up the mask some more with tape and then they took it off.
The next part was the fun part. I had heard that you sometimes get little tattoos so they can line up the machine for every treatment. Apparently some treatment centers just use permanent markers now though and just touch them up every time. I'm proud to have battle scars, so I was hoping for tattoos. In fact, it was one of the first things I asked Eva when she took me back to the simulation room. She said that usually they use India ink, but she'd noticed on my chart that I'm allergic to band-aids (she read my chart and remembered it...seriously, this place rocks!). Anyway, they cover the ink marks with tegaderm and she asked if my band-aid allergy meant I couldn't have tegaderm. Tegaderm is worse than band-aids for me, especially the thought of having tegaderm stuck to me for 4 weeks (tegaderm is that clear plastic waterproof sticky stuff that they use to cover bandages and surgical dressings). So, my band-aid allergy earned me four tattoos! I was a little worried it would hurt getting them, but it didn't. I never know what to expect when someone describes something as "like a bee sting" because a bee sting is really painful to me. I didn't even feel the first prick, but I felt the other 3 (technically 4 since the last one had to be done twice). It didn't hurt too bad...I accidentally stabbed myself with some really insanely pointed tweezers at work the other day and that hurt way worse. I have one spot a little off center just above my breasts and the other three are about two inches below my breasts, one in the middle and one on either side. I thought about putting on my bikini top and taking a picture, but they're such little dots I doubt they'd show up. Josh says they just look like little moles. I think the black makes them stand out a little more than a normal mole. Regardless, I think they're cool.
Once I got the tattoos, I finally got to sit up (slowly...the blood had to re-distribute itself after an hour plus laying there. I got to take a look at my mask and I've decided it looks like it was made using one of the crystal skills from the last Indiana Jones movie...that's mainly just because of how I have to have my head tipped back. They said I can keep it when I'm done, so I may have to decorate it and hang it on the wall or something!
I got changed back into my normal clothes, got my dry run appointment scheduled for the 19th, and then got to talk to Chris, the nurse, to sort out the port surgery. I had gotten so stressed out having to deal with all the phone calls regarding the surgery the other day, so I was so thankful that Chris said she was going to handle scheduling it. That makes my life so much easier. Chris thought I was awesome for having the documentation about my port with me (it hasn't left my bag since I had the port put in), so she made photocopies of all that, plus the note I had to bring from Dr Sharma saying it was ok to remove it and then I got sent on my way. The doctor who will be taking my port out is named Dr. Tweedt, which I think is an awesome name. His office was closed today, so Chris can't schedule the appointment til Monday, but I should know then when the port will be coming out. Dr Ampey said that unless the site gets super swollen from the removal, it won't delay my treatment. I'll be starting on Tuesday, the 20th and then 3 weeks after that, I'll be all done.

It was totally awesome today to not have to go get chemo!!!