Cranky Day

Wow, I was cranky today. I started the day off much less smiley to my technicians. I couldn't help but think about the fact that for three days they lined me up on the wrong dot. I wondered how they could screw that up, and the more I thought about it, the more annoyed I got.

To start off each treatment, they first line up my side dots into the molding to make sure that my back is straight. Then they take an x-ray to see if my guts are in line. Then, when all is clear, the buzzer comes on and it radiates me. One of the robot arms actually has to swivel around me a bit, because I think they shoot me from about 5 different angles. Once that is done, they move on to the electron treatment of my sternum. There are three dots in the center of my chest. The one they are supposed to use is the middle one, but somewhere along the line on Tuesday through Thursday last week, they lined me up using the top dot. I really don't get that, and I really don't get why it had to be three days in a row. They do not do an x-ray of that, because the electron treatment does not pass through my whole body. Therefore, there is no backup check to see if they lined me up correctly. Once they radiate that for a little bit, then it is time for the hip.

Now I think I am a unique case because they have to radiate two parts of my body that are pretty far apart. I would assume that normally people just get a prostate or just a hip or just a leg or something. But the fact that I have two parts radiated, relatively far apart, means that they have to move my nekked carcass up towards my head and to my right so the machine can reach me. They have to do this EVERY TIME. However, they do not write it down, nor do they remember. They re-solve this problem about twice a week. Somehow they can line up my hip dots without moving my body, then they go in the back and have to come back once they realize that they didn't move me up first before lining up my dots. Today I told them that they have to move me up higher and they ignored me, then they went in the back and said they are having some computer glitch so I lay there nekked and motionless while they go try to figure it out. Then they come in about 15 minutes later and say that "to fix the computer glitch, we are going to have to move you up." I wondered to myself if they remembered that I had told them that first. On Monday I am going to wonder out loud to them.

This is all an appropriate way to end my treatment. Remember that I started it all off with an egotistical doctor that gave me a percentage that it was 90% not lymphoma? And now I finish with a few doses of radiation to the wrong place. And plus, I have to go in next week very begrudgingly and get my last three doses to correct the three-day error. And all this with probably some low blood cell counts and probably with a continuing esophogitis that does not allow me to eat comfortably. I haven't felt this frustrated since my wheelchair days.