Party Time Redux

The treatment process

We took this opportunity to shoot a few pictures of the radiation treatment process, and the team who helped me through it all.

This is what I looked like on arrival. This is the first close up I have posted with the clam welded to my cheek. This chunk of skin used to live on my right leg and extends into my mouth covering the hole in the roof of my mouth created during my original surgery, and extended during this second one. My mouth is crooked for now, due in part to the clam pulling things down. This "flap" is actually shrinking, but it will be a while before that process is done. Then my plastic surgeon will adjust things and I hope to look fairly normal. For now, I get to use makeup to tone the skin to blend in with the rest of my face.

Once you get called for the treatment, you need to vocally identify yourself at the control console outside the treatment room. Then you enter the room and lay yourself down on the table.

The next step involved placing a cardboard shield coated with something that blocks the radiation so it will not bounce off my fillings and mess things like my tongue up! This step is dangerous (for the tech), I might bite her. Does Scarlett look scared here?

After the shield is in place, they bolt my head to the table using the mesh mask they created before this whole process started. As I have said, the mask is very tight, and keeps my head in a fixed position. They use a laser beam to check the alignment of my head for each treatment. The treatment plan needs to align each shot precisely to make sure they cover the required areas completely. On more than one occasion, we have had to unbolt the mask and tweak the positioning to make sure it is right.

This is Heather getting ready to bolt the mask to the table.

Apparently, it takes a lot of supervision to make sure this job is done right. Heather, Scarlett, and John (one of the students learning how to do all this) made sure I cannot escape. Even with the mask on and the cardboard in my mouth, I always took time to kid them about all this stuff. In fact, it is all important if you really want to program to work. These folks take their jobs seriously, and I appreciate that. But, it is a tough job, and I hope my attempts at humor brightened their day!

Once the mask is firmly in place, and my eyeballs are smashed into the mesh, the techs leave the room and close a huge, thick, door The only one getting radiated here is me! I love their comment as they leave: "Here we go". Yep! They are gone and I am stuck in this room!

After the techs leave the room, I got to sit for quite a while. I accused them of playing cards for a while but it takes some time to get the program loaded and everything aligned just right. The table you are on is actually mounted on a big turn table, so they can rotate it around. The table, itself, can move around a bit, and "Herman" is also able to move around to give the doctor the ability to target just about any spot in your body, while avoiding things he does not want to harm. When the treatment begins, you hear a buzzing sound, but feel nothing. I did mention that I saw a brief flash of light if the beam was close enough to my eyes.

My program involved six individual shots, each lasting about 10 seconds. Between shots, something would move to position things for the next shot.

When the buzzing finally stops, the techs reappear and get me loose from that mask. Sitting up is a bit of a challenge these days. The only significant side effect I had during this process was fatigue. I am sure my exercising helped limit that problem, though.

On a few occasions, they left "Herman" sitting at an angle when they unbolted me. The first time they did this, I almost fell over convinced that I was standing sideways! I was not expecting something that massive to be moving around like it does!

After they unbolted me from the final treatment, My wife and sister came in for the celebration. They have been a huge help through all this. I really need to thank both of my sisters for coming out to Texas to help out. They really helped both Cheryl and me. (Cheryl is not sure she is letting Connie go back home - HA!)

Here are the two Techs who have helped me through radiation treatments twice now. Scarlett (on the left) and Heather (on the right) were both a lot of fun to work with and to tease on a daily basis.

Finally, I had my normal Wednesday visit with Dr. Dzuik, the boss of the radiation center. He has been a wonderful guide through all this and I would not consider having anyone else plan out my radiation work. I am amazed at the wonderful team he has assembled to do this work. I told him before that I really am impressed at how well he does this tough job. He has a fabulous sense of humor, and is always fun to be around. He told me several years ago that this work can be draining, especially when patients do not make it. But those of us who survive and live on make it all worthwhile. I am sure that feeling gets all of these fine folks through as well. I am glad to help out in that regard, Doc!

Thanks to all of the team at Texas Oncology Radiation Clinic.

Now, I get to focus on healing and tuning up that face! Thanks to all of you who read this blog, prayed for us, and just thought about us during this ordeal. We all pray none of you ever have to go through anything like this. But, if you or a loved one do, know that with the right support, and with trust in God, you can get through the process.