Radiotherapy Starts

Yesterday (Monday 17th) saw the start of my approximate 7 weeks of radiotherapy. I had been given two late appointments for Tuesday and Wednesday (around 3.30) which would have meant possibly hitting the evening rush hour for the journey home. However on Monday the team very kindly were able to re-arrange both days, Tuesday to 12.30 and Wednesday to 2.10. So a big thanks to them, it is really appreciated !!

Monday saw my first appointment and it was nice to meet up again with some of the staff who had treated me last year. Considering the number of patients they treat it was nice to be remembered and to chat with them. This time round the positioning of my leg for treatment is a little more time consuming and the team take extreme care in ensuring an accurate line up. 

The machine that delivers the treatment is also fitted with two arms, one on each side of the main body. These are an X-ray transmitter and Receiver and you can see these on the pictures below :

X-Ray arms in retracted position

Machine rotated and X-Ray arms deployed

This X-Ray ability allows the operators to instantly take an X-Ray of my leg after I have been lined up using the laser system. Back in the control room this X-Ray is then overlaid on top of the CT scan image taken during the set up and planning procedure. Any slight inaccuracies can then be adjusted by automatically moving the table I am laying on. They are required to position my leg within 1mm every time I have a treatment. The technology which delivers my treatment is very impressive as are the highly trained operators that use it.

My Christmas day treatment will be on Sunday 23rd, Boxing day treatment on Sat 29th, and New years day treatment on the Sat 5th Jan.

So now I've completed 2 treatments, it's only 31 to go !!