Got a call on Friday asking me to come in for the radio therapy planning meeting at 10.30 today. The visit started with a trip up stairs to the chemo ward to have a blood test and a cannula fitted as apparently they wanted to inject me with some kind if dye to get better images for my first scan. The blood test was to make sure that my kidneys were working properly.
Once that was done it was straight into the mask making session. the technician nurse explaining what would happen during the process and showed me a flat sheet of the mask plastic before it is warmed up.
First of all the make a mouth piece a plastic tube that helps to keep the tongue still during RT to minimise the effects of RT it receives. A setting putty is rolled into a sausage and wrapped around the tube to take an impression of your bite so that it will go to the same place each time. It doesn't fill your whole mouth and the technician nurse just presses it gently. You then have to wait about 4 min for it to set.
Next is the mask making. The plastic blank goes into a heating chamber with warm water to soften it. A hole was made in mine for the tube to stick out. Next you asks to sit on the table and they use a range of lasers to get you line up completely straight. This involves some permanent marker pen lines being drawn and an xray to make sure you are lined up properly. There's a lot of staying still at this point. There are now 3 people working in the room because when the mask is ready you need lots of hands to get the fit right as soon as possible. When they bring the mask sheeting over and put it on your face it feels like a big warm towel. It's not over hot, but everyone gets to work quickly making sure it is fitting the shape of your head. Your eye are closed throughout this process.
Once everyone is happy with the fit then a fan and some cool tissues are put on to help it set quicker. You are fastens down using the clips at this point and you have the mouth bite in. It doesn't take long to cool down and once it's set they release the clips and everything comes off. I had to wait for a while for the scan wearing the mask because the blood test was held up.
Once that came back I was off into another room with a CT scanner where I was popped back into the mask with through tube and scanned wearing it. The tracer fluid was injected through the cannula, that felt a bit cold as it went in but didn't notice anything else. That didn't take very long. The mask is quite a tight fitting, but the point is to minimise movement to make sure the treatment goes in the same spot each day. I asked about the eyes, as you do have to close your eyes with it on and mine was marked up to have the eyes cut out.
The final thing was a tiny black tattoo in the centre of my chest to enable everything to be lined up in the same place each time. The permanent marker pen marks are now removed. This was like a tiny scratch sensation. I had to wait for a while to make sure I didn't have an allergic reaction to the tracer then the cannula was removed and I was given a parking permit.
My treatment starts on the 18th August for 6 weeks 5 days a week.
