I've been de-ported!!

So I've completed 9 days of radiation. About 20ish to go. I should be done by the end of May. I go every day (Monday through Friday). The treatment itself only takes about 15 minutes so I've been able to do it on my lunch hour. Assuming I don't get stuck at any ridiculously long stoplights (I sat for 4 whole minutes at 700 East one day. Honestly, I was beginning to wonder if the light was malfunctioning) I can make in almost exactly one hour from the time I leave my office to the time I walk back in. It's been nice to not have to use up more sick leave for this.

It's been interesting. For the first week I had the same two radiation technicians. They were both women and were really nice. I got comfortable with them. Every day I drive up to the front door of the hospital, leave my car with one of the valets, and radiation is just inside on the main floor. I check in at the reception desk, walk back to the dressing room, don one of the oh-so-lovely hospital gowns and sit down in the waiting room for approximately 30 seconds before one of my technicians come and get me and walk me back to the radiation room.

I lie down on the table and they proceed to mark me up with markers. The first two days it was with sharpies. The circle all my tatoos and then draw a bunch of other lines that I don't really get the purpose of. The third day I offered to bring in a good supply of washables and they got the hint and have been using washables on me ever since. Then they take a couple minutes to make sure I'm in the right position and they have me lined up exactly how I was the first time I came in. I'm not sure how they do it, but they say they need to have me positioned accurately down to the milliliter. Then they turn of the lights, leave the room and zap me.

It's weird though because I am so much more uncomfortable with the idea of radiation than I was with chemo. There is just something about consenting to lie on a table while someone shoots radioactive waves through my body. I try not to think about it too much while I'm lying there, but it's hard to really concentrate on anything else. The technicians leave the room completely while the machine is working. Right at the entrance there is a big red light that turns on and an alarm sounding buzzer that goes off when I'm actually being radiated to warn everyone to stay away, and yet, there I am, lying on the table, absorbing it all into my body. Yikes. But, at least I don't really seem to be experiencing any side effects yet. I was told to expect extreme fatigue (Okay, that is nothing new. I can handle that one) and one heck of a killer sunburn at the radiation site by the time I was done. So far I haven't gotten any more tired than usual and my skin is showing no sign of irritation at all. That stupid machine better be working because I'm not doing this any longer than I have to.

One more fun little bit of information. I had my port removed. This is the little device they put just under the skin in my chest before I started chemotherapy so they wouldn't have to put an IV in my hand/arm/foot for each infusion. Well, anyway, I had them take it out. When they put it in, it was done in the operating room and though I wasn't completely out, I was pretty loopy once the procedure was over. To remove it was a lot easier, I guess. They just did it right in the clinic. Neil even got to stay in the room. They gave me a local anesthetic, cut me open, separated it from the tissue that had grown around it and pulled it out. I was kind of hoping they would have a mirror on the ceiling so I could watch it, but no such luck. Dang it.

The local burned when it went in, but small price to pay for not being able to feel anything. Or so I thought. I think he started making the incision before the anesthetic had a chance to kick in. I just lied there for a few seconds trying to figure out if what I was feeling was really pain or if it was just pressure. It only took a few seconds though before I figured it out and I said as calmly as possible, "Um, am I supposed to be feeling this?" He quickly gave me some more of the numbing medicine. It was kind of a crazy sensation.

Anyway, after he got down to it, he pulled it out and applied pressure to the area where the catheter entered the vein to give it a minute to clot up. I was grateful for that. Didn't exactly feel like bleeding internally. Though a nice, big bruise would be fun to show people. Then he stitched me up. I asked him if I could keep the port. So they cleaned it up a little and stuck it in a bag for me. I think I'm going to hang it on my rear view mirror. It will help me remember. I don't want to forget any of this. Not a single thing.