After meeting with the radiation oncologist the week prior, we are feeling pretty good about things. We learned that the protocol is relatively short (every weekday for 4 weeks), the doses they use for lymphoma are lower than for other cancers (20-40 gray versus 60-80), and the expected side effects really are minimal. After the fun of chemo and having been preparing myself for a SCT, this sounds like a walk in the park!
In order to get ready, I had to get a scan done so that the doctors and physicists can figure out exactly how they are treating me. They map out the exact location of where the tumor was, where the remainder is, and where all my organs are. They want to treat an area somewhat bigger than what is left while still staying as far away from everything else as possible. Based on the scans, they do a bunch of calculations to figure out organ volumes and how much scatter can be tolerated as well as determine exactly how they want to direct the radiation. Once they've gotten that all figured out, they do another scan to double check and as long as everything looks right, you're good to start treatment.
In order for this all to work, you have to be positioned EXACTLY the same each time you get on the machine. Which means they need some way to get you all lined up again. Which means tattoos - 3 in my case: one on each side of my chest and one in the middle.
Now let's play find the tattoo:
I knew that they would be small, but I didn't realize just how tiny they would be! (In case you weren't sure, it's the black dot on the bottom that's way smaller than my moles/freckles.) Although I mostly don't notice it, when I do it's just kind of weird - it looks like I poked myself with a pen and that it should just wash off ... but it obviously doesn't.
So I've had my initial scan and my tattooing and I go back on Thursday for my "dry run". Assuming it all goes well, I'll start radiation on Tuesday the 13th.
And for all you forward-looking people: that means we'll be done before Thanksgiving!
