That old black magic

Old black magic has me in its spell
Old black magic that you weave so well
Those Icy fingers up and down my spine
The same old witchcraft when your eyes meet mine
by Louis Prima And Keely Smith

Hold that thought and remember that the punch line for the day is 3 minutes.

Paul and I left the house for the hospital at the crack of dawn. I didn't need anymore coffee since we went out at 4:00am to get some. Arrive at radiation oncology on time (duh!) and wait for my sister who also arrives early. New character in the play shows up. Dr Radiation Oncology interviews me AGAIN, however makes an interesting genetic link between my grandmother on my mothers side who died at 42 of lung cancer (didn't smoke and lived in the countryside..you know clean air and happy cows). He explains what the radiation will do and all that technical stuff.

Wear yet another creation of the Armani Hospital line, a lovely powder blue hospital gown... it is the latest in the hospitals in Milan... I am going to be scanned and tattooed... YES PEOPLE tattooed. They scan my chest and with a Sharpe, select the appropriate 5 spots. Check and double check and get a tattoo pen and voila! I have now 5 idiotic dot tattoos on my body. Granted they are tiny but I needed to bitch about it.

All the doctors and staff go away for 20 minutes to do the math... basically to determine how much power is required to nuke the shit out of the tumor. For those keeping track it is 5 days at 300 10 days at 200 and 10 days at 200 localized to a very small specific area. That is 5500 units of whatever being whatevered on my chest for the next 5-6weeks. I know... I work in a technical profession.

Lunch and transfer of venues.. We finally get to go to the cabana section of the hospital. Lovely pale green with a 1990's pergo floor. Nursing staff is terrific and explains very well what I will be going through. All of you out there listen well.. EXCERCISE, EAT GOOD THINGS IN APPROPIATE PORTIONS, BE HAPPY AND LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. Interestingly since my body will be compromised between the chemo and the radiation, NO SICK PEOPLE around me or around Rich or anyone else who does not like sick people being contagiuos.

They place me on a Star Trek looking contraption that can go anywhere 3-d, extremely cool. They run a few tests to make sure that my 5 tattoo locations match the scan of the machine. In theoretical terms I understand what is going on with the machine. As a non-believer of magic, someone says that something I can't touch is doing something to my insides that will be good for me. That is a little to Salem's Witch trial if you don't float kind of thing.

They all run out of the room (it's that voodoo ritual thing) switch on... 300 doses : 3 minutes switch off.

You can go home now sir, see you tomorrow.

20 hours of stress
6 hours at the hospital
2 hours of sleep
3 minutes of radiation.... priceless