Next Checks

Well another trip to my center for Hope to complete the checkouts before the final part gets started. I arrived at the City of Hope today to get a Cat Scan and a MRI. The radiation process is fantastic and will use the info from both of these scans to create the radiation delivery map. This is important as it will allow the machine to deliver very specific and appropriate beams onto the bad and needy areas. The staff here is fantastic as they were wonderful while completing both of these scans. If you never had a MRI, well when your head and body are inside the very close cylinder, you might be a bit nervous. I however am on number seven and the two before my surgeries were extra detailed and took about 60 - 75 minutes. After getting these two scans, I got to meet the mask creating specialist. A mask you are asking? Yes the most important mask to keep my head from moving so that the radiation beams will enter and hit the exact same spots for all the treatments. The mask that will safely prevent my head from moving at all. Now imagine if you took a tennis racket and heated up the strings. Once they were warm the technician took the racket and stretched the warm strings over your face and head. They pulled tightly against your face allowing you not to move anything. Not your head, chin, mouth or your eyes which must have been closed because they are unable to blink. Perfect, yours is just like mine. Oh, lastly they attach the mask to the table where you are being treated so that it holds you extremely well. Finally we met with the nurse to go over some of the basics for when the treatment gets started. She had lots of info and answers for the few questions we had. Whew.