Naked on a table

Because my greedy tumour is big and invading other tissues I need preoperative chemoradiation therapy before surgery. Radiation is a very serious therapy because getting it right maximises the dose given to the tumour and minimises the dose inflicted upon currently healthy bits of me.

You can't have body image issues when you have cancer. Luckily for me I don't. In the last week I have had my genitals examined and a finger up my bot bot and yesterday I was naked on a table while four people counted my vertebrae, felt my tail bone and drew lines down the crack of my bum.

Finding the right position

The purpose of this session was to find out the best position for me to lie in while radiation enters my body. The radiation will later be fired at me from three directions.

Using a felt pen the technicians drew lines and cross hairs on my body. These aligned with a laser light system that will later guide the direction and angle of the radiation. I need to have the radiation in exactly the same spot each time. Because of that I ended up with four tattoos.

I never thought I would have a tattoo

The tattoos are four dots that line up perfectly with the laser light system that will later guide the beams of radiation. The tattoos are permanent.

If I was fair skinned I would have been more worried about them. But my four tattoos blend in perfectly with the other 254 dots that cover my body (yes, I counted my moles one day).

This is me.