I'm a lady with five tattoos - Radiotherapy Planning Session
I have now become a woman with 5 little blue tattoos (which are hardly noticeable and took a coupleof days to find on my skin)! I was tattooed Friday when I attended my radiation simulation/planning session.
So there I was, bare breasted (yet again) with the radiotherapist and two nurses surrounding me as I lay on the table ready to be prepped for the 3D CT scan for the simulation when a nurse says "you don't mind if I touch your breast do you?" "Feel free" said I, "almost everyone else has". They burst into laughter as they moved me this way and that to get me into position with my arms above my head and my hands holding onto a bar. My radiation oncologist appears (lovely man) waving a marker pen at me. Discussion ensues as I lay there peering up at the machine and then he tells me that he is going to start to mark up my breast, grins at me when he finishes and then disappears. The radiotherapist proceeds to mark my breast with dots and wires and then proceeds to read off numbers. (I would have loved to have seen what my breast looked like at this stage but I wasn't allowed to move). They comment that my ribs lie low (most people are at 9 mine are at 10 (whatever that means) - amazing what I find out about my body that I didn't know before!). By this time, I have pins and needles in my hands and my arms feel slightly numb.
Finally, they tell me that they are ready to scan me and that I should lie still and breathe normally. (I take long slow breaths to keep calm, counting between each one) and a short time later they tell me it is all over. Still lying there, they strip me of the wires and dots and then the tattooing begins. (Thy tell me that these small tattooed blue dots are hardly noticeable and will allow them to lie me in the exactly in the same position for my sessions of radiotherapy). My hands are now completely dead and my arms are more than numb. I'm warned with every prick of the needle but feel little. And then it is over.
Once again dressed, I then meet with a pleasant radiotherapy breast nurse who runs me through what creams. soaps,etc. I can use during treatment and what problems I might encounter with radiotherapy (ie redness, blistering, etc. etc.). I'm also told that because it is Easter the Holman Clinic (the only radiotherapy clinic in Southern Tasmania) is extremely busy and that I will have to wait another four weeks before my treatment begins and I'll only be given 2/3 days notice. I leave the clinic feeling happy. Waiting a few more weeks before my treatment begins doesn't bother me - it means my breast will be given an extra two weeks grace to lose its swelling (I'm still a size larger on my treated breast) and to heal after two re-excisions. I am not complaining. The Holman Clinic (although extremely busy) has state of the art equipment and the clinic itself is modern and new - thanks to the rebuilding program of Hobart Hospital. As for my care and treatment, I have no complaints, it's been amazing. The support staff, nurses and doctors have been extremely informative, friendly and pleasant.
I'm off to an information session at the clinic this afternoon "Preparing for Radiotherapy" where we will be shown the machines we will be treated on. Family and friends are welcome. My husband thought it would be a good idea to attend and is quite interested in the machines and to see where I will be treated. Couldn't ask for better support.
