I start Monday Nov 8, in eight days. Every week day for 33 treatments. I get an average (I think) of 180 centigrays each time, totaling 6,000 centigrays cumulative. They zap the whole breast, focusing on where the lump was but they want to zap everything. The thought is that, after the lumpectomy, node removal and two different biopsies, the blood vessels weren't perfectly flowing so chemo didn't thoroughly flood the tumor area, a very important area. Radiation comes in and finishes it off.
A linear accelerator (which is just what it sounds like, a machine that accelerates electrons to all move fast and in a line) throws electrons at a tungsten plate. Photons (a little packet of light, with high energy) are released from the other side, focused on me. The biggest damage is on the splitting DNA of my cells, and anything cancer is splitting (or reproducing) faster than the healthy cells. Therefore the cancer DNA gets damaged the most. YEAH!I thought I was getting IMRT, not GATE. Dr. S (who I truly like) explained they are the same radiation, simply different software for the application. He described IMRT as a pinpoint flashlight in the woods, and to see an entire tree you would need way too many flashlights. What I need is intense at the center, but with a wider beam to hit all we need to hit. He doesn't want to just get the one inch around the tumor area, as the goal is to get the entire breast. GATE is programmed to change with your breathing, much used in lung cancer. My radiations will be very short and they will show me how to breath to minimize getting my lungs in the radiation field.
I don't know if you wanted to hear all that, oh well. Dr. S was patient and thorough in explaining my radiation treatment plan.
Anyway, they did a CT scan and some other measurements in the above machine (the entire office is Florida country motif.) I have a polyethylene bead pillow dedicated to me (with my name on it) that positions my head and neck for each radiation treatment. It is all computer driven.
And most elegantly, I currently have eight two - inch navy cross marks covered with clear plastic circles all around my chest, to help them get me lined up next time with their red dot laser beams. Monday, they will do pinpoint tattoos there. I have to keep these plastic circles on thirteen days. Tuesday I was lying on the uber-expensive CT machine, and smelled that Sharpie smell. I looked down (without turning my head) and yes, it was a Sharpie.
My thought, radiation is a ray of sunshine. Thirty three of them.
