Science v fiction and week 3

Blog 17 science v fiction and week 3

After last week’s touchy-feely blog and the brilliant video from my friends, I thought a return to hard-nosed facts might be to some people’s taste.

The week before I mentioned the carbon-fibre bed that I lay on (and have the mask bolted to). I’d told people that it was there to absorb the radiation as it left my body. Pure fiction. Today I happened to be reading the Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics (ooh, er) the organ of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (ooh, I say) and I now see that it is there so that radiation IS NOT absorbed and DOES NOT bounce off but that it passes STRAIGHT THROUGH and therefore does not increase the amount of radiation behind my back (literally, not figuratively*).

http://www.jacmp.org/index.php/jacmp/article/view/2247/1282

IMRT is the regime that is being used to treat me. Reading the Institute of Physics on-line journals, I find that there are different types of IMRT and different computer models used to deliver the dosage to the right places in me. Two of which are named PEREGRINE and CORVUS. So I will be questioning Dr. Russell Moule, my consultant, next week.

Anyone know what a moule is? être fait au moule
Henry Moule invented the dry earth closet.

Reading the British Journal of Radiotherapy - http://bjr.birjournals.org/content/76/910/678.full - I now understand the inverse planning process needed for the type of IMRT used at Mount Vernon for my treatment. They’ve worked out how much radiation is needed to kill off my cancer sites and working backwards, they now know how to modulate the beams in order to put more in some places – like the area containing the removed affected lymph node – and less in other places – like my spinal chord. Working further backwards, they know the angles that the radiation needs to hit me, so the planning programme knows how to move the machine around my body and where to slot in the lead leaves to prevent some rays getting to me.

Enough of that. This is the end of week 3. They said that the effects of radiotherapy would start to kick in. On Monday the consultant prescribed for me a lot of different pain relief. Codeine for everyday pain, aspirin to gargle with, some liquid to coat my throat and, in case things got bad at the end of the week, morphine liquid. She was right – or she cursed me! I needed the throat liquid later that day and I needed the codeine before bedtime. By Friday I also needed the morphine. The searing pain in the throat got worse and worse as the weekend went by. So much so that I eventually capitulated and pulled out of the Silverado golf event taking place in Maidstone on 13^th/14^th.

What they also said was that I’d only lose my facial hair, ha! The fluff on the back of my neck lined my polo-shirt collar today like a ruff. And a handful of proper hair between my neck and my right ear came out before tea.

My tongue has turned white. My saliva has turned green, speckled with red and stringy like gruyere in a fondue. My nose is running. My hands and feet are often cold and white. My taste buds are shot and now even water tastes like it came from a month old vase of dahlias.

But it was nice to be driven in each day. Thanks to Dave, Alan, Row, Keith and Maxine. The petrol money paid for three new members for Dunton Community Garden and a donation for Cancer Research as part of the Gamlingay Zumbathon on Friday.

And the radiotherapy technicians enjoyed the cakes I took in on Wednesday for my birthday, and the music for each of the sessions: This week’s choices were, erm, varied. Nigel Kennedy’s rendition of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Simply Red. Queen – they wanted to keep that one as they danced around the computer screens. Jools Holland. Blur.

My sister enjoyed Sam Cooke – well after seeing in last week’s blog that I’d played it, she’d put on facebook that she loved it – so I sent her a copy. One of those Random Acts of Kindness that’s so much fun to do.

You don’t need me to tell you that the weather has turned. On Wednesday I cut up some more wood and on Thursday I lit the wood-burner and settled down to watch the last of the Harry Potter DVDs from Keren on the big telly. On Friday the big telly made England win. Talking footie – one of the technicians is an Arsenal supporter and her husband is a Liverpool supporter – so I wore my Liverpool shirt on Tuesday. But as Arsenal are ahead on goals scored, she wasn’t too annoyed. We laughed.

I think week 4 will be tough – so it’s Blue week. Really looking forward to Tuesday, though – it’s payday and England will beat Poland.

Love to you all

Frank

*A literal usage is the "normal" meanings of the words. It maintains a consistent meaning regardless of the context with "the intended meaning corresponding exactly to the meaning" of the individual words. Figurative use of language is the use of words or phrases in a manner where the literal meaning of the words is not true or does not make sense, but "implies a non-literal meaning which does make sense or that could be true"