what’s radiation like?

in case you were wondering…

Side effects: supposedly it does cause some fatigue, but I’m not really noticing any.  The bummer side of it is really just two points:  1) it’s *every* day for six weeks and there’s no way for that type of scheduling to not be a pain in the rear.  I had to leave school shortly after the day was over which made it really hard to do any tutoring, tidy up the room, or prep for the next day.  And there was never time to support my students by watching their sport events.  So I left school, drove downtown, had my 10 minutes of zap and drove home in the beginnings of traffic.  The other bummer is 2) the skin where the radiation is focused basically gets sunburned.  Depending on skin type and color, it ranges in degree of burn.  My skin has held up pretty well.  There’s a funny tan line under my arm pit that is the edge of where I get zapped.  And there is one area where the skin is burned worse than I ever had before, but it’s not blistering, so I’m okay with the itch and sensitivity.

My doctor’s been really great about sharing stuff with me to help me geek out.  They hit me about 10 times either from different angles or with different target areas and/or depths.  Each zap has its own map and I’ve seen the maps overlapped.  There’s a cool avatar of me (well, more just my chest) with each field highlighted in a different color.  Pretty cool to see, I think.  And it’s neat they way they use lasers and my tattoo markers to line me up exactly the same every time.

The techs are all really nice and two of the guys are actually a bit cute.  It’s weird, considering what they are doing to me, but it’s always better to be working with cute guys than really ugly or old ones.

only one more visit and then it’s over    yay!!!