Relieved that 'down below' one compartment was empty and the other still full as required after a short 20 minute journey to my local hospital, I presented myself at the appointed time at the Radiology department.
After a very brief wait I was collected by one of the nurses who took lengths to make sure that I knew everything about not only today's procedures but also what was going to follow over the next couple of months.
It was then time to lie on the bed of the C.T. Scanner where I was gently maneuvered into the correct position to enable the scanning and x-ray simulation facilities to take accurate images so that plans for my treatment could be calculated by the Clinical Planning department.
The whole process only takes around 20 minutes and culminates with the tattoos which turned out to be three minute black dots and not the multi-coloured works of art that I had been expecting!!
I was then given the dates and times of my first appointments. The friendly, cheerful and helpful staff then escorted me down a couple of corridors and through several sets of doors in order to show me exactly where I had to report and announce myself when my treatment started.
A quick visit to the loo later [phew!] and I was on my way home.
One of the precautions that you have to take when undergoing radiation treatment is to 'cream' the area to be treated twice a day. This is done by applying Aqueous Cream twice a day and helps prevent damage to the skin.
Being a bloke and not used to applying cream to my body I unscrewed to lid of the pot of cream and scooped up quite a large dollop in each hand and began to rub it in.
Had I thought about a little more about this operation before being so generous with my application of it ,I would have saved myself 20 minutes of hard effort in trying to make the cream 'soak in' and two sets of exhausted fingers!
Learning from my error I thereafter used a considerably smaller portion for the twice daily application.
The following week I retraced those steps and arrived in good time for my first 'zapping' session. I was that early that I had to turn the lights on ! I placed my appointment card into a box as previously instructed,took a seat and waited. A few minutes later others with appointments that followed mine trickled in and I was surprised and pleased to find how friendly everyone was with everyone giving and receiving a 'Good morning'.
I realised that I was not going to be sat in the waiting area amongst a bunch of strangers but had been immediately inducted into a band of folk bound together by a common foe.
More or less spot on time I was summoned for my session. Having slipped off my trousers and donned my dressing gown when I had arrived,as asked to do to ensure as many patients as possible could be seen every day, it was hop on the bed and after a minor position adjustment or two to ensure that the beams of radiation were exactly targeted at the correct location it was 'zap' time.
The machine rotates to line up at your left hip and delivers it's treatment for a few brief seconds then moves up to repeat that brief blast once directly above your pelvic area and finally to the right hip area.
All done & dusted in under 5 minutes!
It's now 2 sessions down so 35 to go!
