Off to meet the Dalek

Oh well - the dates have been set, the treatment programmed and the times allocated. It sounds as though I'm going to get the full works!



I went down to Cheltenham last Wednesday to be fitted for an 'immobilisation mask'. This will be a clear plastic device that fits over my head and stops me from moving my head whilst the Dalek zaps me from his ray-gun. It's a mucky process involving cold alginate which is a fairly quick-setting goo that gets slapped all over your face (except nose and mouth). This is then covered with Plaster of Paris bandages to harden it up and hold it firm. My hair was wrapped in cling film and then the goo applied. It covered everything, including my eyes. It was OK for a while - I'm used to wearing a mask when diving, and I didn't even mind the blacking out on my eyes. It was as the Plaster of Paris hardened and tightened and started pressing on my throat making swallowing difficult that I had to take some deep breaths and remind myself to stay calm. Fortunately the therapists kept talking to me and each other; had I been left all alone with no idea how long I would have to stay like this I could have been quite freaked. Following its removal it's used as a mould to make a tight-fitting, rigid mask. It's to make sure that the rays hit the same (right) spot every time thus building up the exposure and destruction. (Apparently because the cancer cells grow more quickly they are also killed more quickly than healthy cells.) After the treatment the healthy cells slowly regenerate - over a period of months - and this is why one is left feeling exhausted for so long after the treatment.



The schedule is going to be punishing. I have to go down to Cheltenham five days a week for the next 5 weeks. I start on October 15th and finish a month later on November 16th. I am due there at 9.00am some mornings and by 10.00am on all the other days. The retirement lie-ins, late starts and midnight bed-times will be out the window. On Tuesdays I have to have two loads of zapping! The first at 9.00am and then again around 3.00pm - as I said, the full works. The radio therapist who fitted me out for my mask said she thought I'd be OK for the first two weeks but that after that I'd be tired and in some discomfort - enough for me not to want to go gadding around the Cotswolds between the Tuesday treatments.



There is a doctor down in Bristol who claims to use a really sensitive test that can identify tiny amounts of cancer in your body. This is a new and unorthodox form of testing, not yet adopted by the NHS. I am tempted to go and have a test but I don't know what I'll do if her tests prove negative. Refuse treatment or go ahead regardless - the belt and braces approach! The surgery was traumatic but I have to say that the zapping sounds even worse. Even so I'm now a bit p***ed off. I could have had radio-therapy as the primary treatment and this would have avoided the need for any surgery at all. No neck dissections, no lip splits, no skin grafts and so on. And once it was finished there could be no surgery as the tissue would have been too damaged by the zapping. Easily seen with hindsight but was it really so hard to diagnose and recommend once they knew it had got into my lymph glands? I'm not a cancer expert yet the decision was left to me. Those presenting their cases for surgery or radio-therapy were not neutral but experts in their fields with, no doubt, NHS targets and standards to achieve. Did this guide them in their advice and will it colour their views of alternative recommendations that I might receive from Doctor Bristol?



I guess that, in the end, I'll follow the tried and tested NHS route. It might be a pain but at least its known to work. So wish me luck and think of me - I'm not going to enjoy this!



Ron