Off to chemo and once we figured out that my immune system is strong enough for a treatment today. Another day (well, 3.5 hours) hooked up to a machine that pumps all kinds of goop into you (Yeah PORT! No old fashioned IV setups for me!) Unfortunately, today I was not in charge of the TV so I had to endure The Price is Right, The Young and the Restless, and a few other shows that prove beyond a shadow of doubt that there is no intelligent life to be found on any channel below about 30. My mom stayed home for two years while she fought through Rheumatic Fever, and watched all the soaps, then she started back up again when she retired. "Nothing has changed - the characters are all older, but they have not learned anything!" or so she said! I have no intention of verifying this claim!
We did the next to last radiation in the afternoon and took a few pictures.
This is my sister, Karen, and I driving up to the center.
After signing in, which alerts the folks in the clinic that they have a new patient to work over - er - on, you get to sit a bit and read up on the same magazines that seem to live in all clinics all over town!
Oh yeah! I wore the hat today. The hair did not go away, at least not due to treatments, just heredity!
This is the left side of the treatment accelerator. It looks just like part of my garage. If I had known that, I could have saved some money! Maybe my garage is growing one of these beasts?
This is the table (and hat) where I get to lay me down for a brief spell.
And the right side of the machines innards.
I jazzed up the mask a bit. Where is Jim Carey when you need him?
Here I have been locked down to the table. They need to make sure I end up in exactly the same place each time, so...
The use a laser to line things up, then take two X-Ray pictures for fine alignment (the table is motorized and moves - actually bumps - you into place.
Once the seal up the room, the technicians drive the beast from a console that lets them see what is going on and actually fire the beam off from the console you see here. Lots of neat stuff going on here! Ain't technology wonderful?
I have this all figured out! There are (were) 14 microscopic cancer cells doing their best to hang on through all of this. Today, the chemo woke then up and they started singing. Unfortunately, the big bad machine heard them and blew them up! One more time and we shall hear one of my favorite songs "The Sounds of Silence". The only bad thing is that we have to wait for a few months to make sure the silence was real - Phooey!
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