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Lifetime Radiation 33

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   How did I get here - 33 Lifetime Radiations to treat my Cancer?  Looking backwards, my 30th Radiation was on June 11, 2019 and then my 31st Radiation was on March 15, 2021 or 643 days in between.   I began three days of intense CyberKnife Radiation at John's Hopkins Baltimore or known to me as the "Mothership" to treat the tumor on my spine that I wrote about in my "3 Sentences" blog post.

  What exactly is CyberKnife Radiation?  Good question let's compare treatments - my 30 Radiations were at John's Hopkins Sibley Memorial Hospital which involved walking in a concrete box, turning on some tunes, holding my breath for 20 seconds, lying still between breaths all lasting about 20 minutes each treatment.  CyberKnife, well, it's big fucking time, still walked into a concrete box, still listened to tunes, but I'm bolted to the table with my custom mask and have to hold still for 90 minutes and treated with a very high dose radiation.  I heard that about one CyberKnife treatment was like 10 normal radiation treatments, so that 3 treatments is like 30 treatments doing the math.  I still was like if I did 30 before, 3 was a piece of cake....Ok, let's go through that experience:

CyberKnife Radiation Room - You lie down flat on the table

The Robot over my shoulder moves around the room, this is the "off" position, when it's pointed down, you know there is no radiation coming out

They made a custom mask of my upper body and bolted it to the table - yeah, fucking insane!


In position, lying down, strapped and bolted down, HOLD still no movement!

Mask Close Up - you like? I got to keep it


     So you got the experience, but the blog post is titled "Lifetime Radiation 33" - what does that really mean?  
    March 18, 2021, I woke up knowing I would receive my 33rd lifetime radiation treatment beating the mark of 32 set by my Dad.  It was 2.45 pm, I got onto the elevator to go down to Radiation Oncology, a man got on at the last minute.  I said under my mask "You look like my Dad."  We walked out of the elevator, he checked into the same lobby and all I could think was, this person looks like Dad, then I snapped this picture, he was the same image of my Dad, down to the khaki pants, black polo, gray hair and belly.  I introduced myself, his name was Maury, we chatted for 5 mins, they called his name and as he walked off, he turned around and said "hope it was a good omen."  I sat down in the lobby chair filled with emotion, I guess you could say my Dad was right by my side all the time.

Maury, aka my Dad as an Guardian Angel



March 18, 2021 3:30pm, as I lay bolted to the table for my 33rd treatment.  Dr. Redmond (my Radiation doctor) comes over the loud speaker.... "HammerOn" she says "Hammer On!"

March 18, 2021 5:11pm, as the CyberKnife moved away, my body aching from laying still for 90 mins, I know I was done, I said "We did it Dad, Hammer On!"
33rd Radiation

We did it Dad, Hammer On!

















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