While I was waiting for our chinese take-out tonight the owner asked if I would like some tea.  What a nice thing.  I sat by the window along the river, warm tea cup between my hands, and watched the pouring rain as I thought about my experience today.

Before I left for work this morning, I took a picture of my scar and the area that is going to get radiation treatment.  I plan to take a picture each day to sort of  chronicle the affects on my skin.  Who knows if I’ll ever publish it, but it can’t hurt to get it recorded.

I checked in at the radiation department and as I practiced during the simulation and verification, headed to the dressing room, picked out a psychadelic johnny 🙂 and stuffed my shirts and jacket in the locker.  I replaced my doo rag with a baseball cap (the knot on the doo rag is uncomfortable when I’m lying down).  I waited by the window overlooking the fields, and watched the rain come down.  A radiation tech found me and took me into the now-familiar room.

Three women helped get me into position.  They already had my ‘cradle’ waiting for me – my arms fell into position easily.  They worked like quiet bees adjusting and aiming.  Someone said a number and someone else verified the same number (this is good) and they asked if I was comfortable.  I got to keep my pants and cowgirl boots on and I was complemented on my boots by several people.  “We ALWAYS notice people’s shoes in this job!”

Above me was this round disk like contraption, where the ratiation beams come from.  It has an aperture of sorts, it reminded me of the lense on an SLR camera.  It shuts and opens according to the shapes that are programmed into it.  I was draped very modestly today. 

When the radiation is turned on, the machine hums a bit.  Each exposure was very short, maybe 10 seconds in each position…or so it seemed.  After one exposure, the machine passed over to one side, the aperture readjusted, the hum and another readjustment by the team.  Sometimes the table I was on swiveled, sometimes the machine itself rotated to the other side or above me.  When it was above, I got that waffle iron feeling like I did during the mugga scan way back when. (I was the batter, remember??)  A few clicks, a few hums, a few adjustments and the staff came back in, ready to clear the way for the next contestant.  It took no more than 10 minutes, I’d say.

I was led to an exam room and met with the radiation oncologist for a quick visit.  Each week I will meet with him to go over questions, review the plan and look at my exposed skin.  I had him look at the ointment my herbalist gave me, and he said there was nothing that concerned him in the ingredients.  I told him it might stain my skin yellow and he laughed.

The “patient navigator” whom I met in chemotherapy popped her head in while I was waiting for the doctor.  She is so incredibly sweet and was just checking in.  She cheered when she saw my hair whisping out of the baseball cap.  My new schedule initially has me scheduled mostly in the early morning, but the scheduler was able to find me a 1:00 time slot for the majority of the treatments.  That’s good and will assure that I break my day in half as planned.

I found my way back to the locker and applied the ointment on the exposed area.  Slowly I began daydreaming about chinese food and realized that I was starting to smell like sesame oil or something one might find in a chinese restaurant.  I went home and picked up E for guitar lessons.  It meant a lot to me that he remembered and asked me how radiation went.  While he was in his lesson, I went to the chinese restaurant and ordered some food to go.  I was sort of afraid that they might decide to put me in the wok if they smelled me,  so I kept my jacket zipped right to my chin.  Dinner was ready before my tea cup was empty.   Back at the ranch we celebrated each other’s day as we cracked open our take-out containers.  (A started her first ‘real’ job today…)

I’m 1/33 of the way into this part of the trail.  It wasn’t so bad today.  I felt fine, no immediate reactions.   My horse, she and I are well on our way with so many riders still on the trail with us.  I can hear the rain falling on the roof.  I might just go snuggle up in bed, one of my favorite things to do on a rainy evening.  I think I will use my aloe gel on the days that I go to work after radiation and save the chinese herbal ointment for the days when I head home.