May 5, 2004

I promised I would write an update after I got my tattoos…well, this report is about 3 weeks late! Sorry about that! The good news is that all is well…at least so far! I went in for my radiation markings (tattoos) on Tuesday April 13. It was a fairly painless procedure where I was on a table underneath a machine taking all kinds of pictures of the area to be “zapped.” They measured this and that, and lined me up under red laser beams, and took several Polaroid pictures. When they were finally ready to mark me, they put small dots of India ink on various locations of my chest. Then they took a needle and “poked” me very briefly in five places. The ink got into the skin, thereby leaving the mark, or tattoo. It stung for a brief second, but that was all. I have 5 black dots on my chest…permanently!

My radiation oncologist told me they would be able to start on Monday the 19th, but the radiation technicians said that may not be possible due to the heavy schedule. They would call me to confirm a start date, but that it would be more likely the 21st. I was getting a little worried, because now, I was going to run into the start of my motorcycle trip! To make a long story short, the Woodbridge Office was not able to schedule me until the 28th of April. When I complained loud and long about my schedule, they found a spot for me up at Fairfax Hospital and I was able to start on April 22nd (the day after my birthday.)

Radiation is a painless procedure and takes very little time. The hardest part about it is simply getting there in DC traffic! The procedure itself takes less than 5 minutes. I went into the room, and lay down on the table, put my left arm over my head into a cradle, and one technician called out some numbers while the other technician positioned me on the table. I found it interesting that both technicians were men. I just thought at least one of them would be a woman. Anyway, they lined me up with the red lasers, focusing them onto the middle tattoo. Once they were sure I was in the right place, they positioned the machine, and left the room. I heard an electronic buzz for about 15 seconds. I couldn’t feel a thing. They then came back in the room and rotated the machine to “zap” me from the other side. This time the machine hummed for about 45 seconds. Once that was done, they came in and told me I could relax my arm and sit up. That was it, I was done!

I’ve since completed 10 treatments, each one the same as the first. This is WAY more fun than chemo!!! My skin is just barely beginning to turn pink. It doesn’t hurt at all.

The joint pain/stiffness/soreness, is still a problem, but I’m assuming it will go away eventually or lessen with time.

The really good news, is that I stopped wearing the wig about 2 weeks ago. My hair is still really short, but getting longer every day. What a good feeling to not have to wear the wig anymore!!! My next project is to put together a photo album of my various stages of hair and/or no hair! I’ll put a link to it on this page eventually!

Until next time……