new radiation tmt

I went for radiation this morning. It was the first day of the second leg of treatment. The first treatments were really short: a little shot to the front, a little shot to the back, and I was done. I was laying on the table for maybe 2 minutes, plus another 2-3 to get set up.

The rest of these are much longer. Including the time it took to get set up, I was there for about 25 minutes. The machine moved all around and zapped me at different angles. The tech explained that I would hear some clicking, and not to be alarmed about it.

Basically, the machine is a big circle on an arm. The arm enables it to rotate around the table. in the middle of the circle, there is a rectangle. Inside the rectangle, there are lots and lots of little tiny grey pieces (of what?). It kinda looks like one of those novelty toys with all the pins, where people tend to stick their face or hands in and it maintains the shape.

The little grey pieces move to make holes to let the radiation out. The clicking is the pieces moving. When the machine was in my field of vision, I was watching it — it was pretty neat, and it changed every few seconds. The tech said it would change about 200 times during my treatment.

I decided earlier that while I was laying there, I would visualize myself running a 5K. This would help time go faster, give my mind something to do, put positive things in my head, and maybe help me run ;-) It's the first time I've ever run a 5K in 20 minutes :-D

Eight down, nine to go...