by Rick St. Dennis
During our hospital visit today I hope to be able to go into the operators room next to Colin whilst he has his radiotherepy. I am trying to be with him at every stage of his treatment. I think when someone has cancer it does involve the whole family... only eight more sessions to go...
We had the normal trip to the hospital for Colin's
treatment and this time I went in with him. Colin put on one of those attractive
backless gowns over his trousers, put his clothes into a basket and waited to be
called. When the nurse came to collect us we meandered round a maze to the
treatment room where he took off his glasses and got onto the bed. His gown was
lowered and then the fun started. The bed was raised to chest height and the
lights dimmed. Colin laid with his arms above his head holding onto a bar and a
green laser grid appeared on Colin's chest and with a nurse either side of him
(and me getting in the way) Colin was moved slightly to line up his tattoos and
the ink lines drawn on him until the screens read the correct position. This was
all explained to me and of course I hadn't a clue what they were talking about.
They took their time to get everything perfectly aligned and said we are now we
going back to the 'control room' One nurse pressed a button and a loud beeping
noise started. I followed the nurses but one said 'you may want to hurry a bit'
... eek!! it was like a spy film where we have to escape the baddie! So I rushed
after the nurses round the maze to the control room where they said they had to
secure the room because of the radiation. They have to have corners in the maze
and it is made of concrete lined with lead because x-rays flow in straight
lines. Then they started the treatment which was all explained to me and which
of course all went over my head. The nurses both took the time to show me
everything they were doing and the control panel really looked like something
out of a sci-fi film. This huge machine circled Colin one way and then round the
other way, I commented on the size of the machine and was told that even more of
the machine was the other side of the wall to where Colin was laying. The
treatment was then over and we went in to collect Colin... I was able to tell
him all about what was happening whilst he was just laying there, or at least a
simple version. It was all quite exciting really. Now we have the weekend off
and treatment starts again on Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment