Maybe I should read this whilst in the waiting room....?
Today I went to St Luke's Cancer Centre in Guildford for the radiotherapy planning for the next stage of my treatment. The point of radiotherapy is to target any cells that may be left in your body after chemo and surgery. The amount (strength and duration) you need varies from person to person. I'm having 3 weeks worth with a weeks' worth of booster added onto the end.
Here's some more information about DIBH
A CT Scanner
I then had to lie on a fairly hard bed and was moved into a very specific position with my arms above my head (Dr Zap had already asked me if I had full arm movement, this is important as your arms have to be out of the way of the radiation).
They then put the goggles on me and I did a couple of test DIBHs to make sure I could get the yellow line to go green.
I was then taken into the CT scan, which is all open and nothing like the MRI Scan and had to do 2 x 12 second breath holds whilst staying as still as possible. You have to stay still so that the measurements are accurate and your exact position can be recorded. This record means the radiographer can check you are lying in the correct position every time you have treatment.
Once the treatment area for radiotherapy is finalised, the radiographer will make small tattoos on your skin. Nothing like as bad as it sounds I promise! They literally look like pen dots. I have 3 black ones. One in the centre of my chest, one on my left side and one on my right side. These show the therapy radiographer where to direct the radiation beams.
After that I was all done so got dressed & collected my treatment schedule, last one is the day before Rob's 30th.
I start on March 4th, bring it on.