The machine

Funny experience on day 1 .

When we sat in radiation waiting room some weeks ago we heard the receptionist referring patients to machines 1-6.
Chemo treatment day 1 . Told we must “ talk to the machine” about our scheduling issues such as early start before weekend away and pre Xmas.

I imagined some for of electronic “chat bot” associated with radiotherapy room apparatus. Imagine my surprise when “machine “ was real people to converse with  and a wait room associated with the radiation room. Sometimes I am to techno savvy for my own good
Interesting watching the lens and the diaphragm of machine as it changes as it applies targeted radiation . When starts it looks like this cartoon baby


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

D - 41 - Baby and me and last date “ - We are out of here heading for treatment vacation

Image
D - 41 -  Baby and me and  last date “ - We are out of here heading for treatment vacation. Last “Hat” for this cycle So we have crossed the final hurdle of this current treatment cycle. I attended my last radiation today and we kept this “hat” and dress code for this final day. A celebration and an indication of the start of our “holiday from treatment”. In an earlier post I described the “machine 6” that has become part and parcel of my everyday life,  but for  a few, for six weeks now. One of the things I described was the unusual shape of the filter for the radiation when it was setting up to start the treatment above my chest. It resembled the “baby doll”. Well today I lay on the bench , asked my parents , Bill and Mar Jel , to be beside me in spirit, and we all said good- bye to the “baby”. At the end of the session I put my hand up and said thank you to the machine itself. We thanked the amazing people who had provided such fantastic care a...
Read more

2021 -A third journey in our waka across a rough sea

Image
 So thought I should update everyone that Renene and I have unfortunately had to jump back into “rowing our waka through rough seas”. Scan in December showed a growing lymph node behind the left collar bone . Subsequent biopsy has confirmed same cancer as lung. Had a further PET scan which showed likely new node in middle of chest and probable spread to right 4th rib . Had a biopsy of the lymph node in chest today. Some of prior cancer tissue from prior lung biopsy has been sent to USA for extended genetic testing to see if there is any unusual mutation that may then allow a more targeted treatment . We have stopped the current immune therapy, Durvulamab at dose 23 out of 26 as clearly has not prevented progression. Seems likely we will have to proceed to a second chemo course with two drugs plus perhaps another immune therapy such as Keytruda if there is no specific new targeted therapy. Disappointing for Renene Geldenhuys Jelley and I and our family as you can imagine.  True...
Read more

Day1- 2021 -A third journey in our waka across a rough sea

Image
 Greetings and welcome back on a new journey of discovery. Today the 8th April 2021 Renene and I launched our waka back onto the troubled waters in search of a new journey of discovery and a new destination. Today we wet the paddles once again as we start to drive forward and navigate our way through unknown turbulence with a desire to safely and successfully make our transition. In January we discovered a recurrence of the lung cancer we believed we had progressed well down the route of recovery. New lesions in rib and local nodes so now stage 4 disease. Control not cure. I remain lucky in managing generally good overall health despite the challenges so we start still from a good overall position. I will be hard at work on the paddle along with Renene but increasingly I will need to depend on her and her ongoing support and love to take more of the load . There will be a time when my extended family may need to join us to help us paddle against the storms ahead . I know they too h...
Read more