3 more to go!

So here's the short of it,
The radiation treatment countdown continues --- 3 more to go!


And here's the long

I am so tired.  I've worked every day this week except for a 1/2 day on Wednesday when I was at Erlanger for treatments for as long as I would have worked.  I'm going to really sleep in for these next days.  Tomorrow I hope I can sleep til noon....  Alan laughed and said that Sophie would never let me sleep that late.  We'll see.

Today when I got to radiation they couldn't get the machine to recognize that it was in the exact right position on my skin to give the radiation dose.  It's so interesting to me how the human and machine check one another to assure that I get only the exact amount of radiation pointed at the exact target.  My dose lessened today as a precaution for my heart - and somehow the computer that controls the machine would not come on and allow me to be treated because it said that the machine and I were not lined up in the exact right way.  They had to go out of the room to the master machine and reload the coordinates provided by the physics department to get the machine to be programmed exactly right.  In the meantime a young woman who is a nursing student from Chattanooga State was there.  They get to do a rotation in all the departments that have to do with imaging.  I couldn't really see her because I was already in "the position" (on the table, arms above me with hands on those bicycle handle things, and my head turned, with the cone cranked down within inches of my left breast.  Ashley, who was one of my technicians almost the whole time during my regular treatments was giving her the tour, and I got to have a nice visit while she explained everything that was going on.  She's a really knowledgeable and personable young woman.  Everyone in the whole department is great.  Dr. Gefter said before I ever started the treatments that their staff was of very high quality.  He was sure right about that. 

I will be really glad when my treatments are over, but I've gotten to know these folks so well, that in some ways I'll really miss them. 

The image to the right is not the same machine that is used for my treatment, but the protruding portion is very similar to the "cone" that is used for my boost treatment.  It comes down very close to my breast and my block cut out is put into it.