The first morning of my treatment I had butterflies. We could only find underground parking so it was a good thing that we drove my vehicle! After finding a parking spot we walked into the Center.. I felt as if I was going to throw up. I was still unsure of what to expect as far as my treatments would go. I had to make sure that I had my identification card to register at the front desk. We had to wait a minute because apparently the part of the hospital that I needed to go to you needed to be escorted to. You weren't allowed to go by yourself. That in itself sort of scared me!
The people that escort you are all volunteers. Let me tell you that they are some of the nicest people I have met in a long time!! I got to hear all sorts of interesting stories over the next 7 1/2 weeks because I would get a different person almost every day! Once we were escorted down the hallways down to the tomotherapy area I had to drop off my paperwork at the desk and change into the wonderful hospital gown. There were 3 people who worked in this area, and I can only remember 1 of their names but they were all SO nice. Julie walked me through some large automatic doors (Justin had to stay outside, no one else was allowed to be in the room but me). I saw the large machine that would be giving me my treatments.
I have to admit I was almost scared to be in the room. The machine was large, the room was cold, and there wasn't even a chair to sit on in it. They must have known I was nervous because they did everything they could to make me feel more comfortable. They got me to make sure I had no metal in my hair (bobby pins or elastics) and asked me to lie down on the long narrow table. There was a headrest sort of thing that I had to put my head in. My heart was pounding. They were very good about explaining everything to me. I had never been treated as good at a hospital as I was being treated here. They were asking me questions about where I lived, my family, what I enjoyed doing etc. Next came the mask. They had attached clips to my mask now so that it would clip to the table. The mask was put over my face (I had to close my eyes because the mask was so tight I wouldn't be able to blink and my eyes would dry out if I left them open). They started to clip my mask to the table... my heart was racing. Because my eyes were closed I couldn't see what else they did to prepare. I could hear them walking around but they made sure to keep talking to me so that they wouldn't scare me. They told me that I would hear some strange noises and the I would be slid into the machine.
The doctors were very good about talking me through the procedure. They were not able to stay in the room with me with I got the treatment but they would be monitoring me during the treatment and they gave me a button to push in case something went wrong and I needed to stop during the treatment.The doctors told me that they were leaving the room and going into their room to monitor me. They told me that the treatment would be about 7 minutes long. I heard them leave the room and over the intercom they said that they would be moving me into the machine and the treatment would be starting.
The table I was on started moving into the machine. My heart began racing again but I was trying not to move. My head was clipped to the table and I couldn't move. I am claustrophobic so I was sort of panicking. The machine started making loud noises. It almost sounded like an airplane was fling around my head. There was some clicking noises. I didn't feel anything touching me or entering my body. Before I knew it the machine stopped making noises and I was being pulled out. I could hear Julie and the other doctors talking telling me that the treatment was over and that they would be helping me out of my mask shortly. As they were undoing my mask they commented on how they noticed that I seemed to be uncomfortable during the treatment. I told them it was because I was claustrophobic. They told me that I could ask the doctors for something to help me relax so it wasn't so uncomfortable for me.
Other than my feeling claustrophobic I didn't have any feelings of being in pain. I didn't feel any different than I had when I went into the machine. The first treatment was complete and I felt okay. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all!
I went back out to the waiting room and got changed out of the gown. The doctors then escorted Justin and I back out of the tomotherapy area. Now I got to go home, just to come back the next day!
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