Radiation pics

Last night was another miserable post-chemo Tuesday night so I took the night off.

Yesterday morning I was dreading chemo so much that we got to the hospital later than we probably should have, since I have to have labs drawn before radiation. Since we were already pushing things close it only makes sense that when I went to have my port accessed and labs drawn that my port would be occluded. The lab staff each took multiple turns flushing my port with saline and heparin and having me contort my upper body like a cirque du soleil performer. My port would flush, but there was no blood return, not even a drop.

Since phlebotomy (lab) staff can't administer Alteplase (the medication used to break down clots) I was given a pink slip, literally, and sent directly to chemo. At the chemo check in desk I gave them my pink slip and then we got the fast track (so only like a 10-15 minute wait) to chemo. My nurse administered the Alteplase and then sent us off to radiation.

I did my usual weekly radiation films and then daily radiation treatment. We had a very brief visit with my radiation oncologist, but since I start internal radiation on Friday most of my visit was deferred to our quality time on Friday. As soon as we were done we headed back up to chemo.

Since I've been having such a hard time with the chemo we had agreed on premedication with benadryl. I guess I should have clarified how much, but I decided I really didn't care. I'm the kind of person who can get knocked out cold for 12 hours off of 12.5 mg of benadryl (1/2 a normal dose). My oncologist wrote for me to have 50 mg. I figured why not.

It took about a half hour to kick in, so Geoff and I got one round of a board game in and then I was out cold. Geoff needed to run into work for something and I vaguely remember him leaving and him coming back, but other than that I slept until the last 20 minutes of chemo. When I did wake up the only reason I woke up was because I had to go to the bathroom so bad (2.5 liters of fluid will do that to you).

Afterwards we went home and I staggered the rest of my anti-nausea meds with tylenol for the rest of the night and slept as much as possible. I still had the high temps and chills and overall aches, but I was so drugged out this time that I could actually sleep through most of it instead of laying in misery and wishing I could sleep. I think E came in and gave me a goodnight kiss, but otherwise I didn't really wake up from my stupor until about midnight. Even then I only got up for a few minutes, brushed my teeth, went to the bathroom, talked to Geoff, and then went right back to sleep.

Eric one of the radiation techs setting up my belly board.

I have included a few pics that Geoff took of the radiation room/machine yesterday. Geoff has been curious what it all looks like and the techs were more than willing to let Geoff have a tour so he took a few pics to share with all of you. (note the color changing ceiling-guess that isn't reflected in these pics...oh well)

The Linux machine.

Me laying on my belly board ready for treatment.