Radiation

I've been so busy trying to "catch up," that I have not posted anything about how I have been since I began radiation.

In a word: TIRED!

I am exhausted!! If I do anything that is the least bit taxing, I need to sleep for hours!!

I had radiation before, almost two years ago, on my hip. I felt drained by the experience, but nothing like what I'm feeling now. One of the doctors said that it is common for people to be extremely tired from radiation to the head.

The whole process is pretty amazing. I'm in and out in less than five minutes. It's hard to imagine that something so quick could have such a huge impact on my energy level.

I walk in the room and lie down on the machine. The technicians then strap on my mask (oops, keep meaning to post about that) and align the machine. Then they leave the room, and the machine slowly rotates to the first position, zaps me, then slowly rotates to the second position and zaps me again. Then it rotates back to the original position, the technicians re-enter the room, I get up, replace my head covering and walk out. The actual zapping takes only about 5 seconds on each side (the zap me twice).

The machine makes a high pitched buzzing noise during the zapping and emits a sort of odor (maybe like bleach?).

Today, when I came out of radiation, my friend was so surprised to see me so soon she asked "did they decide not to give you radiation today?" Her jaw dropped when I told her I was already done.

The longest part of the process is waiting your turn. Most days, I wait 45 minutes to an hour for my turn.

One day, there were only two people in front of me and I was out of there in less around 15 minutes. Most days are not like that.



Please daven (or send happy, healing thoughts) for RivkA bat Teirtzel.

With love and optimism,
RivkA