Radiation update

Thanks to all who have continued to check on my progress and keep me in your prayers...This update is for you!

Tomorrow marks the halfway point for me in Radiation!! 19 down (tomorrow by 11:15) and 19 to go. Here's the scoop on what I've been up to every weekday for the last three weeks. Kids up and off to school, Jen throws on clothes and hurries out the door for a 10:15 appt...pull up to Huntsman Cancer Research Center...give keys to complementary valet parking (Huntsman seems to have all the little details that make you feel like a VIP not a patient) and walk through the revolving door to check in at the front desk. If Susan is there she always calls me by name and says, "I'll let them know you're here" the other secretary always needs me to remind her of my name even though I see her almost every single day too...I think Susan adds the personal touch because she was once a patient at Huntsman too.

With check-in complete, I walk through the door that you usually only walk through when the nurse calls your name..but remember, I'm a VIP...I get to walk through on my own! I say hi to the nurses at the nurses station and Diane always calls "Hi, Jen" from the back office...like we've been friends for years. Really, I've only known her for two weeks...we became fast friends over answering machines when somehow I managed to get in and out of the radiation dressing room and past the front desk and nurses station for 4 entire days without them realizing I was "the Jenifer Johnson" who was supposed to meet with Dr. Gaffney on Monday. The day I came in and introduced myself as "the Jenifer that Diane was trying to contact" she smiled like we'd been lunching for years and still acts that way everytime I see her.

Once I say hello to my fan club I head straight to the dressing room to put on my radiation fashion garb, otherwise known as a gaping gown! They make those things big enough to go around me twice and no matter how I tie the ties...they are always gaping. At least the gaps are in the front so I can see when I'm flashing the empty waiting room ...I say empty because in the 18 days I have been there only once have I shared the waiting room with another patient--those radiation techs are right on schedule! I lock my precious possessions in the third locker with the lime green key bungee and slip the key bracelet around my wrist...I find it funny that I always lock my stuff in the same locker...as I find doing anything the same everyday impossible in every other aspect of my life.

I head to the waiting room and sit, tv off (I savor every moment of peace and quiet in life these days), until Debbie, Lindsay or Glen opens the door, smiles and says "we're ready for you". They move people in and out of radiation room 2 like a well oiled machine, all the while chatting with me like we've been talking for the last two hours. In through the huge steel door and down a dim little hall covered with bright pictures of flowers and climb onto my radiation "bed"--it moves up and down and back and forth so I try to think of it as a "ride", the pillow goes under my knees and if I forget and cross my feet, Lindsay uncrosses them and hooks the rubberband around my toes to keep me from repositioning myself untintentionally...and then the real positioning for my "tanning session" begins.

If there is a new tech in for the day they always draw circles around my tatooes, the pros just darken the tattoe with a sharpie so they can see once the lights turn low...they pull and tug gently on my gown to make sure I am lined up JUST RIGHT and they say to each other, "I need just a millimeter this way, or an inch your way...Lindsay always jokes that Glen is too strong and when she says to tug on his side of the gown to move me just a smidge it's always too far. This is the one time when I am soo grateful that someone out there was a Geometry nerd because they are giving out angles and numbers like my high school Geometry teacher, Miss Howe, who used to proclaim " Don't you just love Theoroms--they're sooo cool!"

Once they have all the rays lined up they make sure the music is on (Wailing Jennies, Bob Marley, random music off their itunes accounts) turn down the lights and head out the door. I lay there in my mold without moving a muscle and wait for the machine to start buzzing the warning that the radiation is on--and I can't seem to stop myself from counting even though I know by this time that it buzzes for precisely 8 seconds before it rotates to the left and buzzes for 8 more seconds...No radiation from directly above as that would cause permanent damage to the lungs.

Then the door opens and footsteps come in and someone tells me I can put my arms back down (they've been over my head resting perfectly in my personal mold). Pillow comes out from under the legs, rubberband off toes and I am given a hand to help me sit up. From valet parking to valet retrieval I'd say I'm there for a complete 30 minutes every day...plus an extra 15 or 20 the day that I meet with the Doctor for a skin check. I spend more time commuting than I actually spend getting zapped, but overall I'd say it's more like a VIP visit than a torture session with the 180 rads that are directed at any possible remnants of cancer--did I mention the volunteers that are constantly making rounds of the waiting rooms offering snacks and drinks?? Someone remind me that I'm really at a hospital!