1st day of radiation

Nervous this morning but took an ativan half hour before my appointment. When I walked into the waiting room, Bubbles Wanda was there and the wife of another man there also for AN treatment. This was very relaxing and as these people were at the end of their treatment they were able to reassure me that it would be simple. A young woman came out and gave me a bit of steroid and one anti-nausea pill. I told her I'd taken an ativan and so she didn't give me that. As we were talking a doctor came out...he's a nuclear medicine pioneer and has multiple degrees in the software aspect of the cyberknife, the engineering and the medicine. he was incredibly smart and funny and most enjoyable to chat with. Turns out he was one of the inventors of the cyberknife..the guy on the left.

Wanda and her husband left and I was called in. The room is white with a gurney on the side and a huge robot that looked like the female in "Alien". She was rumbling away in the background, just sitting there waiting to go. The set-up here in Stanford is the only one in the world where there is only one human and one robot alone in the room and the robot works on you. They set me up with my preformed neck piece and buttoned the mask in place. It was looser than it seemed yesterday. They reassured me that I could swallow if I had to, even sneeze if required. They tucked me in, turned on some music and the treatment started. I could hear some clicks and a couple of whirs; the opera soared through the sound system and I found myself watching for glimpses of my huge, mechanical surgeon as he/she worked her way around me. It was very hard to see it clearly. At times the cot moved as well. 35 minutes went by fairly quickly and I was only moderately uncomfortable. I asked them if I fidgeted too much and they reassured me that I was OK. I called Richard and he was there in 5 minutes and we came home.

Later in the day we went to the Sunset Magazine garden and had a walk around; lunch at a Middle Eastern restaurant - gyros, babaganoush, hummus and pita bread with a couple of salads. We bought baklava and some other sweets, spent 5 minutes in a used bookstore then went over to the Cineplex and saw Cold Souls. I slept through some of it as did Richard. Good premise but not a well directed movie. Now we are home and I will be going to bed soon to be ready for a repeat of this morning.

I'm now 3/5th's through the process. Hurray!!!