Radiotherapy Treatment Room
Welcome to the radiotherapy treatment room. This is what all the waiting, assessment, and planning has all been about. This is where we use radiation to treat your tumour without treating any more of your normal tissues than is absolutely necessary.Each treatment session takes about ten minutes. A lot of this time is spent carefully getting everything (including you!) comfortably into the right position. There is usually quite a lot of muttering whilst this is going on. The staff aren't being rude its just that they have to concentrate to make sure all the numbers tally with each other. Along with a load of numbers, you may hear the word laser being bandied about. We often use lasers to make sure that everything is lining up correctly. The lasers are used to help positioning, this isn't laser treatment.
Once everything lines up properly the radiographers will leave the room and the treatment itself begins. When the machine, the linear accelerator, is making x-rays it is quite noisy. Different machines make different noises: some sound like loud buzzers, others making a rattling noise. This is all completely normal. Although you are alone in the room the radiographers are looking at you the whole time, either through a window or on closed circuit TV. If you have any sort of a problem, raise your arm, they will see you, immediately switch off the x-ray beam, and come to help.
The side-effects of radiotherapy vary widely, depending upon which bit of you is being treated. One common side-effect is tiredness. This can be quite minor but sometimes people feel washed out, and for no reason they can think of. Remember that radiotherapy is producing changes in your body's cells and you will be using up energy to deal with these changes. Just because not much is showing on the outside does not mean to say that there is not a lot happening inside. It's a bit like the tiredness some women experience during the first 3 months of pregnancy, energy is being used up inside, with nothing showing on the outside. The best advice is to take rest when you feel you need it. An afternoon nap, or a long lie in, is not a sign of moral weakness. The need for it is a side-effect of the treatment.