Tuesday, December 30, 2008

The Gamma Knife...

This is something that I first came across when Charlie recommended me to Andy. Naturally, the first thing I did when I was given Andy's name was to Google him and I found out that he was a specialist with the Gamma Knife. I was a little worried and so, naturally, I Googled further. What an incredible invention! Google it yourself! Okay, I was a little worried about how it was fitted and so on, but it sounded fantastic.

Unfortunately, for my kind of tumour, it wasn't suitable. As I've mentioned previously, my tumour isn't a lump, it's a distributed set of cells, like a glop of frogspawn. So I don't get the Gamma Ray treatment.

But you can meet my radiotherapist (Nick), and he can explain all about the gamma knife treatment himself: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7791315.stm

He's a nice guy - with a very dry sense of humour!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The Mask!

Today was the day when I went to the hospital to get the mask fitted. You need a mask when you're going to get zapped to make sure that your head is in the same position every day.

The mask fitting was quite uneventful, really. It was delayed because of equipment problems (not mine) but eventually I was called in to have it done. The bed you get zapped on is rock solid and your head is positioned in something like a potty. They adjust various bits until you're relatively comfortable (with the emphasis on "relatively"). Let's just say that I'm glad I only have to stay in that position for 25 mins max. Once they're happy with that, they bring in the mask...

...you have your eyes shut so you don't know what to expect. Then you have something which feels like a heavy, warm, damp J-Cloth gently placed over your face. It's not claustrophobic at all - at least I don't think so. It's a very open mesh, like a fishing net, only the cord is thicker and a lot softer. But there is absolutely no problem breathing and so my previous jokes about having to be nice to ensure that you get breathing holes were completely inappropriate. I had to have a CT Scan too which meant that I had to be injected with some contrasting dye (bloody artists) but that didn't hurt really either. So I just lay there for about 20 minutes while the mask set and I slid in and out of the CT scanner. The room has red lasers pointing all over the place. It was like the movie "Entrapment" and these were used to help identify exactly where I was positioned and the dots were then marked on the mask. This ensures that every day, while I'm getting the RT treatment, my head is in the same position.

Anyway, at the end, they lift the mask off your face and it looks so cool! It really looks like a work of art (and that's not me being arrogant here). I have already asked to have it at the end of treatment and they've said I can. It's like a form of my face and neck in wide-form mesh. Seriously, I could see people queueing to get these made. Really.

My zapping begins on the 12th Jan 2009.