Watch out for that red button!

Had my second SRT session this morning. Drank 16 oz water 45 minutes before my 10am appt, so I was really holding it by then. Didn't get called in until 1015 and by the time I got changed and ready to lay on the table it was about 1025 and I was really having to hold it.

So I start to lay down and as I do so I hear the tech say "Oh no!" and I figured my robe flew open or something. Then I noticed the power went out to the Varian RapidArc and all the other equipment.

Turns out there's a red button on the side edge of the table right where you might want to hold onto as you lay down. That's a master emergency shutoff that turns off power to all 3 of the linear accelerators they use (bad design?).

To turn power back on it's like at the Super Bowl. A sequence of breakers have to be reset in just the right sequence, which takes about 15 minutes. Then the machines come on and have to go through an internal 15 minute calibration. By the time all that was done I was nearly in pain from holding it but managed to hold it.

I don't know if this is a specific design to our facility but for the rest of you going through SRT, avoid red buttons!

The staff was very good about it. As I was waiting for the machine to reset they did caution me about a red fire alarm switch. Stay away from that too.

Yes, I got those warnings too. When ever I was getting off or on the table the techs were always watching where I was putting my hands. They never told me I could shut off the machine just that, "bad things happen when you touch those."

Andrew