Tattoos Tomorrow!

Went to the radiation oncologist at University of WA today.  Looked at the CT scan from last Friday and it's clear that there is no pleural effusion, that the shortness of breath seems to be coming from the growth of several mediastinal nodes, and boy, is the jugular vein compressed at one point along the left side of my neck!

So the schedule is this:  ten days of radiation to the neck and chest, interrupted next Tuesday by the gamma knife radiation to my brain.  Today they made a mask for my face to hold it in place properly while they run the radiation on the side of my neck.  They ran the template under hot water and then formed it to my face.  It looks like this:

Maybe I can join a fencing team later.  They also marked where they are going to put the tattoos on my chest,  to better position and direct the radiation.  So I should be quite cool after this.  The first radiation treatment, which will take a bit longer than the others, will be at 4pm tomorrow.  I have been given, shall we say, very strong pain medications to deal with the possible side effects of the radiation, but the Dr. Halazh is predicting that the worst effect will be a sore throat.  We shall see.