Old friends and a new routine

Last week I went over to old Mt. Diablo Hospital to the John Muir Cancer Center. I got tattooed and photographed and x-rayed. Tuesday I returned to have more measurements on the big KDS machine. It is a mobile radiation machine (mobile in the sense that it can move its focal point in many directions) that is attacking any residual cancer cells. The technicians who run the machine are very nice, very friendly and always have the nicest things to say to me. Today one of them thanked me because he said I am so easy to work with. I responded it was really no big deal to lie on my back with my arms stretched out above my head and my knees gently flexed and not move. He said they were grateful anyway. At that point I felt it necessary to say that I was extremely grateful to them. It was a draw.
So anyway, this is the way it will be from now for about 24 more treatments. 5 days a week I will go in, change into a gown, wait to be called from the waiting room, sit in a chair outside the radiation chamber, wait to be called and then climb onto the gurney that I will lie on to be irradiated. The whole procedure takes maybe 10 minutes once I'm on the gurney. They still mark me with a marking pen and take a few minutes to position the beam but the radiation itself takes no more than two or three minutes. I can't see a clock or camera and I'm not actually sure when it starts and ends so I'm not sure exactly how long it takes. Once I'm done I'm out and dressed and on the road in 5 minutes. Or at least that is the idea. Yesterday I stayed to talk to a nurse about what is going on. She showed me pictures of a breast with red and green lines across it showing where the radiation goes. I was thinking it was a standard picture they show everyone and then I realized that it was my folder and the photos were of me. The nurse explained that I might get tired around the third week and that my skin may get dry. She suggested aloe vera and a cream called Miaderm which is specifically for radiation dermatitis. Since one of the problems that can come up with radiation is that the skin gets so dry radiation has to be delayed for a few days, and since the company that makes Miaderm guarantees with this cream that won't happen, I decided to spring for the cream. Right now I'm using the aloe vera three times a day but I'll switch over to the cream when it arrives.
So far I'm enjoying (!?!) this new treatment but I'm thinking in a week or so I might get tired of driving over to Concord every day for a 15 minute visit. Until then though, it is kind of like the people in chemotherapy. Everyone is so kind and friendly.
Last week I got an email through facebook from someone whose name I didn't recognize. I almost deleted it thinking it was one of those responses to a comment made by a friend but not really something that I needed to look at. But for some reason I decided to click on it and lo and behold it was a friend from my old intermediate school. We've been emailing like crazy ever since, trying to catch up on what each of us has been doing for the last 47 years. And a lot can happen! I'm so thrilled that she found me and that I didn't delete that email! What a joy to have an old friend come back into one's life!