Plastic Pants Are Cool

You know, just when I think I’m done with all the major doctor appointments and being poked and scanned, they manage to pull me in for another one. And I thought my PET Scan from yesterday was strange. Today I got fitted with plastic pants. Seriously, there’s no punch line.

I got called in to see Radiation Oncologist today. The PET scanned confirmed the tumor was a cancer, which was no real surprise but there was the far outside hope that they would pull the tumor out and discover it was in fact not cancer. Glad they were able to shatter those hopes of mine before the surgery when I might be on some sort of emotional high of hope for an easy recovery. The good news is there are no other glowing spots to worry about. So anyway, it was decided that I would undergo radiation treatment a few weeks after surgery. This will consist of 6 weeks of getting nuked everyday. Doesn’t sound like fun but I could be wrong.

Part of the treatment process requires that I lay perfectly still and to help asset in this effort they fitted me for, you guessed it, plastic pants. Let me tell you this is probably the strangest thing I’ve ever had to do. The process involves me lying on the CAT scan table naked while they drape this hot sheet of plastic over me. Yes, it burns in a hot wax candle type of way. The sheet goes from about mid stomach down to about mid thigh. The plastic eventually cools and hardens. They then latch it down so I can’t move. In any other environment this entire process could actually be considered kinky, but needless to say it was less than enjoyable under current circumstances. So that’s it, that is now my official plastic pants cast and they keep it on hand for my therapy.

Then get this, to help with the treatment they tattooed me! Marking where the tumor is so they know where to zap. So I have three small tattoo dots on my mid section. So, I got fitted for plastic pants and tattooed in the same day. Sounds like something that might happen to you after a night of heavy drinking in Tijuana.

Anyway, the tattoo rounded out my vein mapping that I got yesterday that I didn’t really share with everyone. One of my appointments yesterday was with Vascular where they did an ultrasound of my good leg and with a dark black permanent marker, traced one of my veins from my upper inner thigh to my ankle with a few branches on the way day. So if they determine they need to replace a vein in my bad leg, they know exactly where to harvest it.

With that wonderful piece of information I think I will let everyone go. I do want to thank everyone who has been calling and emailing and generally keeping my family and me in their thoughts and prayers. It is greatly appreciated on levels you may never know.