The Door of Doom & MLCs

Just popping on quickly to show you the "Door of Doom." See how thick it is? No radiation will pass through!

See how thick the door is? Yikes!

And here's a picture of the Multileaf collimators. This was taken when LINAC 1 was down.

The MLCs make the shape of my radiation field.
They often move during my "zap."

Day 214 - Radiation #6 Matched Fields

Today I had session #6. Following radiation, I had to wait to see my radiation oncologist, Dr. Marquez. As usual, she was running late. I didn't see her until close to 2p. And then when I saw her, she was in and out. Nothing new to report. She looked at the color of my chest to see if it was turning red. It is pink, but she said my whole chest was pink... and I'm not getting radiation on my whole chest. I told her I was discharged from physical therapy and she said "yea!" No peeling or itchiness of my skin either. I told her that I have been applying the calendula. I also got my treatment plan. I'll have to scan it and then I'll share with you what the plan looks like. :)

Oh yes, today my session was just a tad longer. Every week the techs have to take new pictures of me just in case I have lost or gained weight.

Fact #6: Today I learned about matched fields and divergence. In order to get my supraclavicular nodes, my treatment includes matched fields, tangents and divergence. Divergence is important because they want maximum radiation or energy to the area they are treating. In addition, they don't want to radiate more than they have to. Dan explained it this way: think of a flashlight. When you put your hand about a foot in front of it, the light is pretty dense and small. However, if you shine the light 6 feet away on the wall, the light scatters and is less intense. This is divergence. So when they radiate my clav nodes, they don't want the radiation like the flashlight beam 6 feet away... they want the energy to be centered, concentrated and precise. So what they do is line me up on all tangents (x, y and z planes). The MLCs also come into play because they shield out extra radiation so it doesn't hit other organs or other parts of my body. It's kind of complicated... but that is the layman's terms! Hope that's a good fact!

Six treatments down... only 22 to go! Time is flying!

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

Day 208 - Radiation #2: MLCs

Today was a good day for radiation. I got off of work and sped to OHSU for my radiation appointment. I was in and I was out. Each day I am going to teach you a little about the radiation process... care of my radiation technicians.

Fact #2 (Fact #1 was all about my radiation treatment yesterday): Today I learned of the Multileaf Collimator or MLC. They look like keys and they move to form a shape for the radiation field. Tomorrow I will learn more about it. Here is a pictures of what they look like:


Where ever there is open space... as seen in the above picture, that's where the radiation field goes through. It sort of like projects a "shadow" of radiation on my chest.

Today I also learned that they are radiating my interior lymph nodes (the ones in the middle of my chest) by shooting radiation from the underside of my body. I can't remember what kind of radiation it's called... but it's a different type with a different wave length.

Next time I see Dr. Marquez, I am going to ask her to print out a copy of my treatment plan and the histogram that I was writing about on yesterday's post. Treatments are going to be fast and good. I can handle these!

Following my radiation session, I went over to Whole Foods and got the calendula for my skin. I got the lotion, however, I need to return it and get the cream. I forgot that the stuff is not supposed to have alcohol in it. The lotion has alcohol which will dry my skin. However, the cream does not have any alcohol. Hmmm... at least Whole Foods is on my way home! :)

Join me tomorrow for another lesson in radiation.