The Radiotherapy Roundabout

 
Radiotherapy is a bit like a roundabout. Well it's not really. It just feels a bit like it as you do the same thing every day and you could be just going round and round and round and round a roundabout.
 
It started with a planning session where I had a CT scan so that they could determine and plan the exact dose of radiation required and how it would be delivered. They also took a mould of my boob. This felt very funny, being covered in wax and plaster of Paris. My newly reconstructed boob was wondering what an earth was going on. This created a wax covering that would be used during treatment to ensure the skin got the maximum dose of radiation.
 
I was very lucky as I got to stay down in Exeter during my radiotherapy treatment. I stayed with my wonderful friends Helen and Tom and their beautiful daughter Mila, who is soon to be my God daughter. So instead of a journey backwards and forwards every day, which most people have to make, I was very lucky to get to hang out with them in between treatment in their lovely house. We might have also done a bit of shopping as well... Well it would of been rude not to wouldn't it? Millions of thanks to them for a lovely time during my baking.
 
I had to go in for treatment 15 times all together. Every day, Monday to Friday, for three weeks. The hospital do an amazing job and are extremely lovely and efficient with all the hundreds of patients they see each day. Each day i went in and started by getting dressed in a special gown for breast cancer patients, with poppers down the front and shoulders for ease of access. Then when it was my turn i had to lie on the special bed under the giant photocopier (as I like to call it) and the team line me up in the dark with the lasers so the dose is given to exact precision. It feels like you are in some sort of sci-fi movie. I had to keep very still in a certain position whilst the radiation is given from three different angles. It's a very surreal experience really, about 10 minutes later you're all done and back in the real world thinking, did that really happen? Then in you go again the next day... Until you're all done and finally get off the roundabout.
 
My skin reacted after the first couple of days. But then I don't react well to the sun and get prickly heat so it's no surprise really. Luckily it didn't get to much worse and it now looks like one boob has been on holiday for two weeks without the other one, bit tight really, the other one is feeling left out.
 
Next step is back to work and back to life. I feel very different to how I did a year ago. I also look very different, with my battle scars. I feel like a new person who has been through a lot but who has also learned a lot. I'm extremely lucky that I'm able to return to the real world and also extremely cautious as to how I will cope. We shall see.