First Day of Radiation

The first day of radiation was the most difficult.   They had my mold on the table where they helped me settle down into it.  I can feel the indents for my head, shoulder, elbow and hand.  The table is not very wide, I had to hold my left arm on my belly so that it would not fall off the side.  I ended up grasping the waistband of my pants to help hold my arm in place and hold very still.

The technicians moved me around on the table and moved it up and down to get all of the coordinates correct.  They took x rays, marked on my arm, moved me again, made some more marks  and took some more x rays.  This process took about 45 minutes.  During that time I could not move at all, except to breath.  My arm began to ache and I had to really work at relaxing to get through the process.

They got me lined up and did the first radiation treatment.  Then I was tattooed, a drop of ink was placed on three places then a poke of the needle made each mark permanent.  They use the marks to line me up with the machine.