Radiation Oncologist

Yesterday, the oncologist made an appointment for me today with a radiation oncologist. Since this is a new game to me, I mistakenly was referring to this doctor as a radiologist previously in my blog. Not the same thing. So anyway... it was a radiation oncologist.

We met with the doctor at 1pm today. We ended up having about an hour at home as a midday break. We went through the whole routine of filling out a whole stack of forms, medical history, etc. We're becoming pros at this. My dad came along to this appointment and requested a second clipboard, so we could fill out forms as a team. ;) Then a nurse met with us and asked a long list of questions. I was in a very good mood. I didn't know what to expect from this appointment or if it would even prove to be scary...but I was quite chipper through the whole thing, laughing with people, etc. Even I was impressed with my attitude. ;) Thanks for the prayers!!!

Then the doctor came in, and we really liked him. He was really great. He did say that he had seen my CT scans, but they have not been officially read yet. So he said he was hesitant to say anything at all, because this is not official. But he said that he did not see anything in my lungs!!! PRAISE GOD!!!!!! Oh, how I hope this proves to be true!!!! This was one of the potential risks that had been mentioned yesterday which caused me a lot of anxiety. I hope this doctor is right... But he did say that unofficially, he thinks that there may be something on my upper spine. He said that it doesn't look like it's pushing on anything at the moment though and that this will need to be officially analyzed later. But he just had a reassuring manner in any case.

So he talked to me about radiation. We discussed how it works and what they will do. And this is the plan now. I am going to have radiation on my pelvic area for the 3 tumors that have been located there. One tumor is fairly sizeable (about 4cm). Anyway, it all sounds pretty easy!! It was very comforting to learn about it. He has decided that I am going to have 10-14 radiation treatments. He said that it's likely that it might be closer to 14. I will go in for radiation each day (M-F) for the full number of treatments. And for each appointment, I will likely be there for less than half an hour. This appointment went overtime, so they called the hospital to delay my bone scan. And while I was there, they did yet another CT scan on me today. The radiation oncologist needed a more detailed view of the area to be radiated. And from this, he will determine the number of treatments (along with other details, I'm sure).

I went in for my next CT scan, and they put me on an especially hard plastic bed. Ouch!! I was about at the end of my dose of pain meds, so this really started to make me hurt. I had done very well today in terms of pain up until this point. But I'm definitely hobbling along and not able to walk very fast. I'm on 2 pain medications now (a 12-hour one and an increased dose of vicodin). But this got the pain all started again. ouch. Other than that, it was fairly simple.

Now tomorrow... I go back for my next appointment in the morning. This will be a set-up appointment where they figure out the details of my radiation. They will mark me with a marker and test things out. And once the location on my skin has been determined, they will tattoo me. Literally. It will be permanent. I will probably have 3 dots. And yes, I asked if they could be hearts instead - but I was told that the technicians are not artists and I would not want that. ;) ha. (I'm glad I was able to laugh about this!) So tomorrow, I surprisingly will receive my first (and hopefully only) tattoos.