Treatment

This morning at 6:00 I entered the doors pictured here, took the elevator down to Level B, and knocked back three styrofoam cups of water. Levita, the receptionist, wasn't there yet, so I just went back to the dressing room for Gantry 3 and changed out of my clothes into a hospital gown.

Before long another patient entered to change out of his gown and leave. This was my cue to pad down the hall and into the treatment room where a tech was locking my pod in place. I climbed into the pod and placed my right knee, across my body, on the left edge of the pod. Another tech inserted the balloon in my rectum and filled it with water. Then she told me to lie down and make sure my heels were firmly against the end of the pod. She had me shift my body until it was level in the pod.

Next, my pod and I slid into the center of the gantry. I've never been inside the nose cone of an airplane, but the gantry looks like what I'd expect to see there in terms of its shape. It looks like it's seen a lot of use, and I found myself thinking of Han Solo's space ship in Star Wars. An X-ray plate was located above me, and I heard beeping as the techs took a picture of my position. Then the gantry rotated until the X-ray plate went down into position on my right and the machinery that would deliver the proton beam came up from under me and stopped on my left. The same thing happened yesterday, except that the beam came in from the right; it will alternate each day—right, left, right, left. They took another X-ray from this position, and then we had a little wait until Dr. Kang could check the X-rays to make certain the computer had positioned my body exactly right to receive the beam.

The techs then left the room and ordered the beam to be delivered. I knew that there were cameras and microphones in place in case I needed to get their attention. After a short time, a whirring sound commenced on my left side, and then beeps began at one-second intervals indicating, I believe, the delivery of the beam. A somewhat quieter chirping began which indicated the presence of radiation in the room. I counted 30 beeps from the machine on my left. I felt absolutely nothing out of the ordinary during this procedure. Then the whirring ceased, the radiation warning chirps stopped, and the techs reentered the room.

They unlocked the machine and slid my pod out of the gantry. One of them removed the balloon and told me I could get out of the pod. He said that my treatment tomorrow would be at 10:30 p.m. "Don't be late. Have a great day."

I returned to the changing room where the next patient was waiting in his gown. "My turn," he said, and disappeared down the hall. I changed into my clothes, and left. Outside it was light now, and the air smelled of newly turned earth because crews were planting fall flowers. The process took maybe 30 minutes from the time I entered the dressing room the first time until I left the building. In future treatments, it will take even less time because the doctor checks the location the first two times, but having ascertained that everything is set correctly, from then on leaves it to the computer to replicate the positioning each time.

I went home, had breakfast, and started my day.

Treatment count: 2 down; 43 to go.