h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

1/15 done. only 14 to go.

Bit of a mess up... they handed us a sheet, with resheduled times on on my first day?!

W had a quiet 'chat' with them, whilst I was being zapped; resheduled tomorrows, bakc to a more sensible time, like what we were origionally told; I'e arranged for window repair man to be here tomorrow afternoon, so their trying to reshedule that RT would have messed that up

spoke to nurse type person (no idea who she was), who went back through the side affects; again, they only seem to mention some then, as per normal, fails to realise my being blind means I can't see; trys to make me look at the consent form I've already signed, to confirm I've given consent whatever.

Get into teh room.

Female nurses ask me to remove my shirt; yeh. I know I'm irrisistable, but, really... there's a time and a place...

W gets me to the scanner 'bed' thinggy. (nurses Drs can't do that, they're so useless)

position myself, head in head rest.

Attach my death mask.

Cut off my breathign entirely by crushing wind pipe remove mask, adjust height of neck rest, try again. suffocate me. repeat about half a dozen times, until they've finally got it right...

in I go scan .... out of scan.... pause; W tells me afterwards this is when they're looking at the origional scan; and the new one; and minutely adjusting the images on screen...

pause.....

pip.
back in.
hot flush. imediately gets me almost a bit panicy. breathing and some mindfulness, and visualisation. Radiation starts.

I'm just about asleep by the time it finishes; find out afterwards, that the actual duration of the radiation was 6 and a half minutes



walked home. pop in pub on way back as its warm

Mus phone my Dad now, make W and I dinner, then I think I need a shower warm here again today, but not boiling hot...

Should get to speak to Dr tomorrow, at last about remaining chemo side affects; especially my feeling like I'm passing out, half the time, plus the increasing duration, number, and severity of the hot flushes... - I only assume these are chemo side afects

No superhero powers yet obvious.... guess they'll take some time to appear

14 to go.
Still more weird left to find.

My proton treatment exposure time was only 1 minute each (for two months), but I was on the slab for at least an hour most days. The only real excitement was a couple of days where my session was delayed because young kids had "coded" during their sessions. That's gotta be brutal for a parent to have a kid put under general anesthesia every day just so they'll stay still for the treatment. It kinda put my predicament in perspective. The staff got no complaints for me and they really didn't earn any regardless. The only times they ever had trouble with the mask, it was quickly sorted. They definitely never choked me or even made me the slightest bit uncomfortable. My biggest issue was the itchy nose. I can now ignore itches and just let them go away.

The only time I knew directly when my zap was happening was when they were going in through the back of my skull and ionized the air in my sinuses. I could smell the ozone.

I guess its weird, with the mask, I can feel it move... just as I breathe!; but, more tigheter.... I can't breathe at all To be honest, I think they'd have been better off not bothereing with a mask; instead some kinda breast/chest restraint; its my arm pit afterall; through to my collar bone; then just catching the bottom of my windpipe lower neck area; the only areas they really wanna hit are my arm pit and under my collar bone; the neck etc, is collateral dammage... so... still think a chest thing would have worked betterer

ozone!; that's thae smell I ocul get! I got that! err.... hmm. not sure where from, as they oughta have been well clear of any sinus!

already getting odd feeling on skin, of affected areas.... increased moisturisation has started expect peeling skin by end of week and scaring after that all seems a lot of faff just to treat it, TBH.... but, then again, I consdider death the least o fth side affects, so I'm probably not best to judge life's so overrated in some ways I never kinda got the hang of it right IMO though I am.. . oddly atached to it, when push comes to shove and, well, I guess my being imortal and indistructible kinda alters my outlook a bit just hoping the skin peeling under the arm pit isn't too bad, that'll be pretty uncofortable I guess also hoping it won't affect y chest skin or collar bone area too badly... or my back come to that but... if it does small fry I guess... really...

sneakily nipped into pub with W tonight, as we went out for a night walk to get some air... seemed the logical thing to do must find bed I guess... early zapping tomorrow

I wonder what superpower you'll develop...perhaps you'll be able to do the wrist thrust thing like Spiderman only you'll send out a jet of purple glitter . That'd be cool. Not sure if it would save the world but it would certainly make it pretty

Deb

What purpose does the mask actually serve? Is it to stop you moving, or as protection, like the lead apron for x-rays?

It immobilizes you, that's all.

But if yours is restricting your breathing, 2legs, it should be refit. That's ridiculous that they didn't get that right.

They did get the fit right, so it didn't restrict breathing; it was my shoulders not settling 'back' enough; its more to imobablise my shoulders and chest, rather than my head, per sai; true enough the beam is for no reason, hitting the bottom of my neck, but really its addressing ust the armpit on the lefthand side, plus the area under the left hand collar bone; so the mask descends quite a bit onto my chest area, and shoulders; today's fit was spot on, a lot quicker, as they'd adjusted the height of the neck rest and tweeked it yesterday when I was there, and so set it to the right height to start off with today - one of my main objections that nearly nmade me skip the radiation; is the huge area I'm having to have zapped as far as I@m concerned, just to do the small area they want to treat; for a start, the top of my left arm, and the 'outside' as it were, of my armpit; whereas the node there is just 'in' the armpit (or, rather was as its vanished to touch anyhow), simularly, the five tiny enlarged nodes under the collar bone, they can't target, without hitting my bracchial plexus nerve bundle, hence potential left arm paralisis- simularly, as I can now feel it, I'm getting a fair bit of radiation hitting teh top of my left breast area, which they'd not told me. and the neck is recieving a blast of it too, for no rason (no enlarged lymph nodes in neck)

well. 2/15 done. journal to follow at some point with the new fun and games of another day having people try to kill me and injur me.