On 6 March, had my scan and 2nd pre RT planning meeting at UCLH. A 10.30 appointment, and I was seen within 10 minutes. A young lady nursing assistant asked me if I’d done my ‘bowel prep’. I hadn’t but had a couple of micro enemas to hand. Ten minutes later, I was good to go and then went, emptying my rectum. Having tidied me up, the next stage was having my photo taken, presumably so I could be identified easily. Curiously, no one wanted to look at my carefully recorded notes on my home practice with enemas and bladder practice with glasses of water, which I’d undertaken for five days immediately prior to this meeting.
The next person I was introduced to was a chap named Wills (no, not the Duke of Cambridge). I told him I’d required four cups of water to fill my bladder but he said we’d try with three cups first and see how it went. After, I’d drunk the water and been left alone for ten minutes, he took me into a scan room and laid me out horizontally, exactly as I would be for the R/T. There was a rest under my head and a rest for each foot. He then proceeded to put three ink spots on my recumbent form; one on the left hip, one on the right hip and one on my stomach, just above the base of the penis. He then fixed the points by scratching each with a needle, effectively a tattoo. These would be used at each session of R/T to line up the equipment and hit the same spot each time. Then everybody, except me, left the room whilst they did the scan.
Afterwards, about 10 minutes later, I was allowed to get dressed and go to the toilet to get rid of the water I’d drunk earlier. The first nursing assistant gave me an appointment card with the first R/T date and time written in. This was Wednesday morning, 26 March, at 10.40. And that was it, I was ‘free to go’.
The wife and I spent a week in Germany visiting our daughter and son-in-law, returning Wednesday 19 March. The next day, I had a call from UCLH to confirm my appointment would be on Wednesday 26 March, but at 18.00 hours and I should arrive one hour before. For some reason, this late change of time has rather upset me. I will have to call them ASAP and find out why the time was changed.
