Hello Everyone!
Today was my pre-treatment day at Stanford. I wanted to start my journal here because I have had a lot of worry over how this all would go down. I found out today that my case worker was supposed to provide me with an informational DVD at the time I booked my treatment, but did not.
I am happy to report that so far, all my worry was for nothing. I arrived at Stanford this morning at 7:45 a.m. and reported to the CyberKnife Unit. I was greeted by an RN who explained to me what would transpire today. First she put in an IV line. She explained I would be having a Cat scan and an MRI and this would keep me from having to be stuck twice (which I appreciated). The nurses there were very nice, I found myself laughing and joking with them and talking about the All Star Game.
Next stop - Cat scan and mask making. I have never had a Cat scan and actually did not know I would be having one today. I laid on the table and they placed a bubble wrap type material underneath my head that instantly started shrinking and conforming to the back of my head and actually felt very comfortable. Then out came the material for the mask. I was thinking I would be a Freddy Kruger look-alike, but they showed me a rectangular piece of blue plastic-looking material that had small holes. They wet it and placed it over my face, stretching it down towards the table and affixing it to the table. The plastic turned into a mesh-type material as it stretched, making it very easy to see and breathe (that was my biggest worry, would I be able to breathe well).
The contrast was injected, called Visipaque (147 mil) and then into the tube for a very short Cat scan, about 5 minutes top. After the scan I was shown my mask which had dried -- it made me laugh! I was told I would need to drink at least 6 glasses of water before I drank any other liquid such as soda, ice tea, coffee, etc. in order to get the contrast to flush out of my body.
After that, a nurse escorted me to the Radiology Dept. at the Main Hospital for my MRI. The MRI was also short and sweet (about 20 minutes).
My next stop was to ENT for an audiogram. Found out my hearing loss has gone from moderate to severe. The audiologist said my speech recognition test came out well and that after treatment I may be a candidate for a regular hearing aid.
Next trip to Stanford, Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. I am really looking forward to being a postie. I will update again on Monday.
I feel very happy and joyful and very optimistic!
Bobette
