Question on Radiation

Have another question that I'm sure one of the forum members will know.

Yesterday I had my cat scan done, mold made to lay in and 'tats' placed on me.

Two tat's are on my legs and one on my abdomen. Am I correct that the two on the legs are for alignment purposes only and that the actual radiation would be only directed at the one on my lower abdomen? Or do they also 'direct'

radiation from the sides?

I will most likely be starting the IMRT radiation the last week of August.

I have the same marks. The hips align you up/down and fore/aft. The tummy one aligns you left/right. They're centering your target volume's center with the machine's center. They're both sort of virtual targets, but accurate delivery only happens if they're centered on each other.

As the others noted, the dots are for alignment only...and the molds keep you from moving around. There may also be some imaging alignment as the techs take a radiologic shot of you and fine tune alignment with your original or base picture of your pelvic area.

Not sure if they gave you a tour of the treatment room but you will be lying flat on your back on an adjustable table. The beam machine typically has four arms, one of which will actually direct the radiation each day. The whole thing will rotate around you 360 degrees while you are suspended midair. My plan had two 45-second rotations or revolutions for the radiation delivery...No stops, just continuous rotation, only stopping after the first pass to reverse direction. Of course, there was extra time for alignment and positioning. Once a week, they took several imaging scans that added extra time.

Our radiation rooms were typically on the chilly side--which can be torment when you are in a skimpy hospital gown and have a full bladder! Fortunately, they had a warming cabinet with flannel sheets in there and I had them toss one over my legs and feet. I wore socks but they scowled at my slippers and I had to leave them off. On the ceiling above the treatment table, the fluorescent light covers were actually pictures with flowery fields, wildlife and a variety of stuff. Gave you something to do while in there. There was usually music playing and m techs even asked if I had any preferences for genres that they could pull up on Pandora.

That may be review for you but thought I would fill in the blanks a bit. Trust all will go well for you!

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I have to say that the team working on me did their best to keep me comfortable. Before the first treatment they told me to wear warm socks and every day the first thing the tech did was to throw a warm blanket over me. Then they'd go over and turn on whatever music program I wanted.

Having the techs pull and push you around each day to get you lined up took a couple of days to get use to.

I would ask the make and model of the LINAC that is being used to treat you...