CT Maps — Radiation, Day 9

February 4th — Radiation, again. Thursday must be my doctor visit days because I saw Dr. N today after the treatment. I was back to my usual cheery chipper self, which I’m not sure this doc has seen, so it was a pleasant visit. He said a sentence which I think would be enough to convince most teenage boys to study their sciences so they could grow up to become radiation oncologists, “so, tell me about your breasts.” Isn’t that priceless? My skin is doing fine and the doc showed me the mapping CT pics of my body and the radiation fields they are targeting. I found it all fascinating. As the second opinion radiation doc said, “it’s all very interesting when it’s happening to someone else. When it happens to you, it can be downright scary.” Today I found it more interesting than scary. When we talked about the length of time some of the fields are, he mentioned that you can think about breasts being shaped more or less like cones. The triangle is narrower at the top than at the bottom so that’s why some of the zaps are shorter than others. On another note, my estrogen levels must be rebounding from the chemo. I called my regular oncologist with the news because longterm outcomes aren’t as favorable for folks who don’t stay menopausal after chemo. Sigh. Damn estrogen.