Day 1 radiation therapy

[Flashback to the day of surgery, to fill in details on radiation therapy for those interested]

The morning of surgery, after checking into surgery pre-admission and changing into the lovely gown, we waited for radiation therapy to call. Finally about 7:30 they were available so a couple of nurses wheeled me and Krista down to radiation therapy--the long way. Neither nurse was sure how to get there with all the construction and rearranging that's been going on, with misleading signs thrown in for good measure. 

After 20 or 30 minutes we finally arrived. The radiation tech was clear, concise and assured us that we're in good hands because she's been doing this 20 years. She briefly showed us the plan on a computer monitor and then wheeled me into a large, open room with a concrete floor, various machines, and green laser beams criss-crossing in places. The machine they were using on me was much less intimidating than a CT or MRI machine, but way more dangerous.

Seeing a sizable chunk of lead on the platform I'd be lying on, I chuckled, and the tech said she'd explain that.

She told me that I would be receiving a single dose of radiation, a blend of five kinds of photons, X of something else and Y of something else, 700 centiGray's worth (absorbed, I think).

Next I get up on the platform while the tech and her assistant graciously give me the room while I employed the lead cup in the fashion they described (though I suppose they were watching on camera). They return, propping up my knees with a slab of foam, hooking my feet together with a rubber loop so I don't slip out of position, and then they line me up under their laser crosshairs. Satisfied with my position, they tell me to hold still and depart the room to run the machine.

First the machine does some calibration, taking a quick image from above and then one from below to make sure they align properly. Then the actual radiation bath began, bathing my front and then the rear. I think this stage was only a couple of minutes. While this is happening I could see these metal shapes inside the emitter head (or whatever it's called) shifting themselves into the shape that I saw on the computer monitor earlier.

And that was it. I freed myself from the lead prison (let's hope it worked) and then was wheeled back to the fifth floor for surgery.