Chemo and radiation therapy begin

At last, on Tuesday I fired my first shots at the Enemy. Everything before had been but preliminary, but on Tuesday I found myself in a comfy chair in a cosy little room, listening to the Tallis Scholars singing in Beverley Minster, with Karen beside me in a somewhat less comfy chair. They gave me cute socks and a cookbook, too!

Oh, and of course they sent various alkalis coursing through my bloodstream, too. Again, though this is real chemotherapy, it’s at significantly lower doses than “usual” — its purpose is to make the radiation therapy just that much more effective.

My week’s work there done, I went downstairs to the radiation labs, where they lay me onto a table containing a form that had already been made for my body — to hold me in exactly the same position for each treatment. Once I lay down, they took an x-ray which they compared with one from before, and then moved the table in a series of microadjustments so that the bones near my esophagus were within 1 mm of where they’d been before. The radiation itself lasted just a couple of minutes, with the “ray gun” essentially orbiting my body in one continuous circuit, varying its intensity and precise location as it did so, in order to protect as much of my non-cancerous insides as possible.

This is the Hale Telescope — my radiation “gun” looks not dissimilar

It’s really quite elegant.

I’ll be spending several hours each Monday revisiting my chemotherapy experience, and several minutes each weekday repeating the radiation therapy. With each visit, there should be less tumor!