Tuesday, 13th of August, I had my initial radiation appointment where I was fitted with my ThermoPlastic mask.
I arrived at my appointment and was seen early. Gotta love it when that happens. I had a few things about the procedure explained to me beforehand, a cannula inserted for the contrast, then headed in to begin.
I'm placed onto the hard platform while they heat up the ThermoPlastic netting. I'm warned that it could be hot and uncomfortable as they apply it. I actually find it soothing. Again, the level of pain I've been in for the past 6-12 months, or even longer, is not wasted on me, and seems to make most of what I'm facing going forwards a lot easier to deal with. The mask is locked into place and moulded around my face and shoulders to ensure a snug fit. I'm told to keep swallowing to ensure when it sets fully that I can still breathe properly. Again, the whole process is relaxing and comforting for me, despite the warnings of claustrophobia and other confinement issues.
Once the mask is set, and their calibrations have been setup, they leave the room and the next procedure begins. I'm inserted into the machine and the initial scans begins. This will be the baseline going forward for my radiation treatment. After 15 minutes or so, the contrast is injected through the canula and another 5-10 minutes of scans take place. The entire time they're ensuring I'm comfortable and not in any distress. I do the best to give a thumbs-up, but my pain levels are very high and increasing, as I lay there on that hard slab.
Finally the procedure is over, they come back into the room and I'm extracted from my plastic, green sarcophagus. They tell me I did a great job, I tell them that they did too.
I leave the room and go for a debriefing, where the a nurse and Doctor go through a few more things with me, and my friend, who was there to support and to make sure I asked about my pain, asks about my pain for me (I really didn't realise how much I needed an advocate for this, but lucky I did). They somewhat address my pain, take me off the Palexia and put me on oxys all round. 20mg for pain, and 5mg SR for breakthrough, and tell me I will have to work with my GP to titrate these amounts until I'm receiving proper pain relief. Let's be honest, there's no real relief, it's now to a point of trying to reduce the pain enough so I can function and manage to keep the screaming internal.
Definitely have been sleeping better on the new meds, but I also wake feeling like I've spent a night on drugs and alcohol, which is kind of 50% correct I guess.
My first round of treatment starts on the 27th, with both Chemo and Radiation. Very exciting to finally be at this point. It's going to be a rough few months, but in the end, every single nauseous and uncomfortable moment will be worth it, as I kick the sh#t out of this tumour.
Hoping to provide an update shortly after I start the next stage of treatment, so stay tuned. I'm also still, unabashedly taking donations so when I honestly feel like I can't get myself to work, I'm not stressing about not paying my bills or losing the roof over my head. No pressure though ;)
Thanks for joining me on this journey, even if one of you is wishing me a painful death, whatever floats your boat, honestly. The rest of you, take care, you all mean a lot to me.
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