There was no lump -- a Breast Cancer blog

This blog is about my experience with Inflammatory Breast Cancer.
You can learn more about Inflammatory Breast Cancer at
http://cis.nci.nih.gov/fact/6_2.htm or http://www.ibcsupport.org/

The names of my Doctors have been changed.

 

 

Contact me at Liane58 at gmail dot com
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Location: United States

Monday, November 15, 2004

33 Short Entries about Radiation

First Treatment -- Went very smoothly. I walked in and two Radiation Therapists treated me right away. These are people who are never going to see me fully dressed, I guess. The radiation itself seemed to be on for less than a minute, three times. One dose is from the back, and when I saw Dr. Brown, I asked her if the platform I'm on doesn't block some of the rays. She was emphatic that it doesn't, and that it takes eight inches of metal to block the rays. Then I grasped that the reason I am bare-chested for the treatment is not so cloth won't block the rays, but so the Therapists can see what they're doing. It's all in the tattooed dots, lining up the machine to them. The Doctor told me one set of dots are the "in" set, and the other shows where the rays go out. Anyway, the set-up is what takes time; I was done in 20 minutes. I ran into a colleague from my support group; she is still having problems from post-surgery swelling that make it difficult to "assume the position" for radiation. I guess I am lucky that everything is going smoothly for me. One down, 32 to go.