I have had the first 2 of 5 sessions of radiotherapy. It should have been 3, but linac5 (which I am booked on) decided to break down today, before my appointment.
The linear accelerators at my hospital are fairly new. Large, white machines. Bigger than the other machines I have experienced - the CT scanner, the PET-CT scanner and the MRI machine. They live down in the bowels of the building as I assume they are extremely heavy.
The first appointment took around 30 minutes, the second a little less. They go through a lot of trouble to ensure you are in exactly the same position as you were in during the planning session, taking measurements, comparing with photos, and eventually using the linac to take an X-ray to compare. On the first visit, once they were happy with the X-ray, they attached measurement devices to me so they could confirm the radiotherapy coverage was as planned. They then set the machine off to do its thing. It makes a buzzing noise, it doesn’t take long, and you don’t feel anything. Second time round they were happy with the results of the first one so didn’t need to put measuring devices onto me.
The machine has 3 moving arms, plus the bed moves. One of the arms has the gizmo that delivers the radiotherapy. It’s circular and about 2 foot in diameter. Another arm takes the X-rays whilst the third is the opposing screen for the X-rays. There were laser lights from above, and also a couple of large computer displays showing a lot of information I didn’t understand. As ever with these procedures, the staff withdraw into a protected room whilst the machine is operating, but they can see you at all times.
No side effects so far other than I am quite tired.
Since my last blog, I have had my second Zometa infusion, which wasn’t a big deal. I have also collected a 24 hour urine sample so they can test my ‘adrenal incidentaloma’ for catecholomine levels. I go to see the endocrinology department on 1st December for the results of that. Then I have my liver ablation on December 13th, nicely ready for Christmas.
