The iTat

Thursday, 12/2/10

I arrived at the radiation oncology office and the tech took back to the CT scanner and gave me a one size fits none gown. As I stretched out on the table I warned her that my back might shift. She said it was okay as long as it didn’t happen during the scan. Sure enough, I was on the table about 5 minutes when I had to move my arms up and elbows in to clear the sides of the scanner and my back popped. The tech heard it pop and asked if I was okay. It was painful, but I just wanted to get it over with so I could start my vacation.

She continued with preparations, which included creating a mold of my lower legs using a bag with bead/foam-like material. The mold was used to keep my legs locked in the same position. In addition, three BBs were placed on my body, one on each hip and one on my groin, which were used to align the beam. Once everything was properly aligned, the BBs were removed and replaced with permanent tattoos about the size of a freckle. The leg mold and tattoos would be used at each subsequent visit to properly align the beam, thus minimizing radiation exposure to the healthy parts of my body.

Top panel: actual size of tattoo on left hip
Bottom panel: pseudo-magnified tattoo

It was rough getting up off the table after my back had shifted. I was doing okay until she handed me the treatment schedule. Twenty eight treatments, five days a week for five weeks. My back was killing me just thinking about it, but no time to lose. I had to run over to the surgeon’s office and see about getting scheduled for a port placement as I needed to start radiation and chemo treatments at the same time. I got it scheduled for the following Tuesday morning. I was done for the week and couldn’t wait to get out of town.