Thursday, August 9, 2012

Day 209 - Radiation #3: Field in Field & a hair cut!

Yes! Did you see the title of my post?? I got a hair cut today. After radiation, I drove over to Moxie and Christine cut my hair. She was the one who cut my hair off back in February. My hair was a little unruly. It was growing over my ears and very scraggly on my neck. So now it looks nice. Now I will take a picture and post it. Yes, I know it's been awhile since my last hair post. But Christine was shocked at how much hair I have and how thick and "colorful" it was already.

So I got to radiation today. Dan and Linea were ready for me for my fun fact... so here goes.
Fact #3: My radiation is Field in Field. So basically the machine gets in place and radiates a portion of my breast. Without moving, the MLCs (Fact #2) change shape, thus changing the field of radiation within the original area. That new area is then radiated. Think of it as a circle within a circle! This technique is used to make sure the dose distribution is more uniform. Click on the link and you'll get a more clinical answer.

Radiation is so quick. I get there, get undressed and wait for a few minutes. Then it's back to the radiation room, get on the table, grab the "oh shit bar" above your head and then get radiated. The longest dose of radiation I get is about 20 seconds worth. The shortest is about 5 seconds... and that's in the supraclavicular area. Yes, I count how long I hear the buzzing.

Other than that, nothing much to report. I like getting these fun facts. I hope you're enjoying it too. It's funny, Dan was asking Linea if they could get CE (continuing education) credit for this. They've also got a list going of what to teach me. This is gonna be good! They told me more stuff, but I promised them I wouldn't share yet! LOL

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