10:00: I meet with Dr. Veith. I tell him my first radiation treatment of 20 starts today at 1PM. 4 weeks, M-F of treatment. He says the plan is to do the 4 weeks of treatment then, then meet with him again once treatment is done, order another PET/CT scan, and then follow up with some Opdivo, the same drug that I got in Houston on the study, but since it was approved towards the end of my study, I can now get it here. So that is the plan… I’ll see him in 7 weeks.
13:00: I check in for my radiation treatment. I am told I will get a Radiology Oncology business card with a barcode on the back of it that I can use to check in with, within the next few days. I have a seat in the waiting area.
13:10: I am called by a tech at the front desk, and they lead me to the back. He tells me that everyday I will be called over the loud speaker, just to come to the back on my own, and I will have all my treatments in the same room, on the same machine, as they have 2 radiation treatment machines. I lay down on an adjustable platform with my hands above my head grasping two pegs to keep me in position, and up out of the way of the radiation beam. They place a formed pad under my knees to put me into position and then raise the platform into position and begin to line up the blue tattoo markers they did about 2 weeks ago. These blue dots are lined up with prepositioned non movable green lasers that are always in the room. Once I am aligned correctly, they step out. The machine then begins by deploying the High Frequency Generator (the item that shoots the xray radiation at you), and the receiver plate, that receives the xray images on either side of me, left and right. It takes an Xray, and then the whole machine rotates counter clockwise a quarter of a turn for another Xray of me, t.his time the High Frequency Generator above me, and then plate underneath me. The two items retract back into the machine. The tech then uses the images taken on the day of the tattoo placements from a CT scan to align the platform to the correct position to equal that to what has been programmed into the system by Dr. Sidd Padman, the Radiologist Oncologist two weeks ago. Once aligned the machine starts rotating another quarter turn counter clockwise and shoots the radiation from my back side for about 20 seconds. The machine then rotates halfway all the way around me back to its starting point and shoots me for about another 20 seconds of radiation. Then that is it, all done, the techs come back in, lower the platform, help me sit up, and send me on my way to my weekly visit with Dr. Padman during treatment. All in all the treatment takes about 5 minutes from the time I walk into the room, to the time I walk out. With actual radiation time only about 40 seconds of that time.
13:30: I put my chart on the chart holder and have a seat in the chair by the scale.
13:35: A nurse comes and gets me and leads me to one of the patient rooms. She goes over everything. What to expect, possible skin changes, diarrhea, fatigue, not expected, but nausea, upset stomach, etc, but can call if any severe symptoms or reactions to get some medicine to counter the side affects of the radiation treatments. She leaves the room, and Dr. Padman comes in right after, and goes over the same possible side affects. He then goes over the treatment plan again. Saying for 2 weeks, they are treating a larger area, to hit the lymph nodes around the affected lymph node, just to be safe. This may cause the diarrhea as it is also hitting my intestines as well as my left kidney. The last two weeks will be a lower dosage to the surrounding areas and a more concentrated dosage to the affected lymph node. He will see me again each week, and if I have any questions or issues, feel free to call, and he sends me on my way.
13:50: I am done and gone! To repeat the same radiation treatment tomorrow…
