Dan's Innards

Hi, in every session the therapists take a picture of my pelvic area. Most times that picture is an xray though about every 5th time, it is a ct scan. The results of the xray are that they can see the pelvic bones, front and side. The results of the ct scan are that they can look "through"me. One therapist described the process as creating slices of bread down my body and then looking through them at one end.

The purpose of this part of the process is to align me. In each instance they compare today's picture with the benchmark picture that they took on day one, when they set the tattos. By slightly adjusting the table that I rest on, they can align me today exactly as I was aligned on that first day. As a result the beams of radiation hit the exact spots that the doctor wants irradiated. The two gold markers that were inserted some time ago are used for the alignment, and are, apparently, essential to creating the duplicate position.

In the pictures below you can see parts of the process and both kinds of pictures (xray and ct) used in the process. In the first picture notice the red laser beams crossing on my right pelvic area. The horizontal one is at 9.4 (9.4 what I am not sure, but that number is said outloud every session). The vertical one guarantees that I am at the same lengthwise position. With my body basically in place, the therapists use the pictures to align me left to right. And they use the pictures to make minor adjustments based on the location of my bladder that day.



The second picture is the xray. Due to a camera failure (my fault) we only have this one photo. Mary had taken some others that showed the relation of the benchmark and the daily xrays but they did not come out. The third picture is the ct scan, which as you can see is completely different. While I can guess-read the xray, I am not sure what to make of the ct scan. I would guess that either they can superimpose one image over the other or they have a grid that compares locations and gives the coordinates for repositioning me. I would say that most times, but not all times, I am repositioned.