Sunday, November 18, 2007

When the glow begins!

I checked back in with the radiation oncologist on Friday. Got all their cat scans out of the way. Layed down in a weird bean bagish thing, the size of a (if you have pets you'll get this) a wee wee pad lol. Then it kind of inflated around me and made a mold of my neck and head and shoulder area. Very weird. I kept getting slight adjustments that lined me up in the crosshairs of these red beams (kind of like the ones that read barcodes). Once all lined up they marked on me with a blue sharpy with x's. Then once they made sure those were all in the right place, I got tattooed. Yep thats right another 5 tats to add to the on i had. These however are about the size of a freckle.Oh and I might add, old school tats lol. The technician took a needle and a little cap full of ink and then dipped and then poked me in the center of the "x" So now I have three black dots one in the center of my upper chest, one at my sternum and one an inch above my belly button. Then also I have one on my left side (litterally the side of my body) and one on my right. So now they line up the dots with the red beams o' light and make sure I'm all lined up. Then I'm supposed to hold my chin up but I keep dropping it, I now get to have tape running from the side of the head rest under my chin to the other side to keep it up and out of the way. I'm sure I look fabulous while lying down there. I'll go back on Nov 30th for more films that they need and then on Dec 3 start gettin radiation. The good news is that ( as long as all goes well and nothing changes accept in a good way) I only have to have 10 treatments and at a very low grade of radiation (20grey/gray not sure which way they spell it) not so good news is that it's going to go farther up my neck then originally thought. Apparently it was nodes further up in my neck above the supraclavical ones so my saliva glands are gonna get some rads but hopefully since it's a low dosage it wont' affect them.

I then went to the dentist on Saturday. That was quite the adventure. The normal way to get in was shut down because their elevator didn't work. I went to the address that was left on the note on the door and the security/door woman didn't know there was a dentist office upon the 5th floor. So I went up but couldn't figure out where anything was. Just a kidn of hallway, but all in a nice dark wood. Normally there's people sitting behind a desk right infront of the elevators I guess to direct you to which door but they weren't there. So I headed back down stairs and went outside,called ifnormation , got the number to my dentist office and asked how I get in. I was right but just didn't venture forward on the 5th floor to really figure it out. The lady on the phone said she put signs up, but really you had to walk down the hall to the end then know to turn right and follow another hall before you even saw her signs. She should've put them out right when you got off the elevator. But as soon as I turnd the corner she appeared. She figured if she didn't see me in a few minutes she would hunt me down and come to the rescue. But good thing i was early!
The actual visit was interesting. I got to have a device that I had never had before. It's like a little sandblaster that removes staining of the teeth, but it creates a huge mess. It shoot water too and the little suction thing wasn't in the right spot so the water dripped out down my neck and the back of my shirt was all wet. Not to mention when she was done I had sand all over my face and neck. It felt like I had taken a nose dive on a sandy beach! She looked at the back of my shirt and said oh it's all wet, but you have a coat so you'll be ok lol. Not like I really wanted to be all wet after leaving a dentists office. I do have a cavity that needs filling, on my front tooth of all places. How crazy is that. But the dentist said it can wait till january once I'm all done with radiation. She kind of chuckled when I told her I was having 10 days and at 20 grey. I guess she was thinking i was going to get like 3 months, does make a big difference. After hearing that she wasn't too concerned about the time period in which to get the filling done by. But then she says she wants to crown a couple other teeth because , they have already been filled years ago, and are all full of silver but the pressure of chewing and grinding will eventually cause the teeth to fracture. Not that I want that to happen, but I don't think my dental insurance is gonna cover crowning as a preimptive measure but I'll have to check it out. Not that I really want either to happen. I hate hate hate hate hate having dental work done. I think after I had braces. for a second time, I would be used to it, but, nope, I hate it still and never get used to it.

So there were my adventures that started off the weekend. I did watch a couple movies, Mr Brooks and Ratatouille. Mr Brooks was ok, Ratatouille was cute.
Other than that not much else to report. Hopefully will be a nice calm and quiet short work week!!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

1 comment:

Duane said...

Hey there Sandy,

Sorry about the dentist visit. That's never fun. Let's just hope your insurance will in fact cover the costs!

Stay well and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!! :)