Bye

Time to start my radiotherapy. Or so I was lead to believe. Mislead to believe? Whatever. I arrive at the hour for which I was given an appointment and inform the lady at the registration desk of my name and that I've come to start my radiotherapy.

"You're not here," declares the lady with confidence, while looking at the computer instead of at me. "Lady, I assure you, I'm standing right here," I dare to disagree. "I mean, you're not on the list for radiotherapy," she corrects herself, visibly annoyed by my sense of humor, like people usually are. "Maybe you're here for consultation only. Have you ever talked to the doctor?". "Yes, last week, and he told me to come here today at this specific hour. But he also mentioned some kind of scanning procedure, so maybe this is what he wants to do today."

Meanwhile, the doctor appears, while accompanying another patient and confirms that, yes, indeed, I'm here for scanning only. Apparently, that's a "consultation". The radiotherapy is paid by the health insurance but for the consultation I have to pay 70 euros, because of course I do.

Paying gives me access to the doctor's office, where we can talk and I can ask questions. But the doctor is faster and starts by asking me how we should proceed. I inform him that my expectation is that it is I who asks this question and it is the doctor who provides me with an answer, instead of the other way around.

He smiles (finally someone who appreciates my sense of humor - or at least fakes such an appreciation believably) and informs me that I have 3 tumors (which I know perfectly well) and we should decide which one to treat first because treating all the 3 in one go is too much radiation. Incidentally, this is one of my questions too - I was under the impression, that the radiotherapy will be of the main tumor only. But, according to the oncologist, the horomonal therapy cannot get rid of any tumors; it can only keep them under control for a while - so how are we going to handle the other two tumors?

The doctor informs me that we'll have to irradiate (eventually) all the 3 tumors. Those 6 procedures he mentioned before? They are only for the main tumor. We'll need 3 more for the tumor in the rib. Since it's inside the bone, we'll need a much higher dose of radiation for it. That's why only 3 procedures, instead of 6 - at such a high level of radiation, 6 would be too much. He cheerfully informs me that the beam will be so strong, that I'm likely to feel some kind of pain. First time I hear that gamma radiation can cause immediate pain but whatever.

Looking at the results of the last PET scan, he says that he recommends that we start with the rib - because the main tumor and the one in the lymph node are "sleeping" due to the hormonal therapy, so the one in the rib, which is at least partially still active, is more urgent. This makes sense and, besides, he's the expert, so I agree. We make an appointment to start the procedure in a week.

Meanwhile, I have to undergo scanning. It's some kind of CAT scan - but not the usual kind. It will be used to make a 3D virtual model of my body, so that the physicists can play with it, rotate and turn it in various ways, and compute where exactly the beam should go, in order to kill the tumor while causing minium collateral damage.

Three dots are tattooed on my chest - left, right, and center. They will be used as some kind of coordinate system to help position my body during the radiotherapy exactly as it was positioned during the scanning. The scanning itself takes just 5-10 minutes - much less than the usual PET or MRI scans that I've undergone before.

I am told to come back in a week for the start of the actual irradiation procedure. See you then.