Halfway through Radiation

Today was treatment 14 of 28, and I am so happy to be half way through. I have a little redness on my upper chest, but no pain and no burns. I have had only ten treatments in a row, due to problems getting started, but I hope this is an indication that I won't burn. Getting started was really a mess, though. Because I can't get my right arm over my head (due to shoulder replacement in April) they had a really hard time getting me set up. Radiation is on the left side, so it's possible to treat me with my right arm by my side, but they couldn't figure out how to ensure that it was in the same position every day. You would think they might have seen something like this before! At first the radiation therapist wanted me to just put my hand in my pocket, but I didn't think that would work because 1) not all my pants have pockets and 2) for long appointments, like simulation and film studies, I would not be able to hold the position without support because of pain when I hold it in the same position too long and because eventually my arm would start to shake. So the therapist got into an argument with my doctor, and ended up angrily making something out of plastic that holds its shape when scrunched together that was supposed to support my arm. She was punching the plastic and shoving it under my arm. I couldn't believe someone would act that way in front of a patient, or would be so confrontational with the head of the department, with or without a patient in the room. The plastic thing didn't provide enough support, and it interfered with the contraption you lie down on, the one with the neck support and arm holders. For four days, they took at least half an hour getting me positioned, cursing the doctor under their breaths and saying I had an attitude. For my part, it hurt, every day, because of how long I had to hold the position even with the support. And the whole time I was lying there wondering if the radiation is really hitting the spot it's supposed to or if all this is causing it to go to my lungs or heart. On day four, I suggested that since the plastic thingy wasn't working, maybe we could think about how to make something that would. I was really very nice about it -- I can be sharp, but I know my life is in these people's hands and I try very hard to get them on my side. The folks in chemo and physical therapy love me! Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at my request (why didn't they think that up themselves?), we called a temporary halt to treatment, did a new simulation and a new, two-hour film study that had me in tears from the pain of keeping my bad arm in the same position for so long (the good, mastectomy-side, arm, was just numb), and started again a week after my fourth treatment. During all this I ran into the American Cancer Society social worker who has an office at the hospital and she asked me how it was going. I told her the whole awful story and I think she took it to the chief therapist, because they have been really, really nice to me since then. Now we have a new, much-easier-to-use foam support, and some days I can be in and out of the treatment room in fifteen minutes. What a difference!

I am literally counting the days until this is over!