The Doctor told us that she had been thinking about Morgan a lot over the last few months and had awoken in a panic just that morning over her. In fact, she had called a "mini tumor conference" on the phone that morning just to make sure they were doing the right thing starting radiation. And the consensus was that "the risk of regional re-occurrence is high so radiation is necessary."
Morgan began with a CT scan which the doctor would then create a grid on the computer and compare to her PET scan. It was decided to radiate the internal mammary lymph nodes up by her collar bone also. This would consist of 24 total treatments Monday through Friday. She would have a sunburn show up about halfway through the treatment and her skin and pec muscle would get very tight. The worst side effect would be the fatigue.
We then went into the CT scan where they lined up her body to red lasers lined up on a grid system. Once everything lined up just where they wanted it, Morgan received her 3 tattoos! These made it possible to line her up in the exact same position each day. One is on the back and sort of under each arm, and one is on her chest. They are only as large as a pin dot and so it is really not that big of a deal. The tech placed a drop of black ink on her skin and then punctured her with a needle and voila! The one on her chest hurt quite badly and she didn't like that so much.
The doctor then spent the next week building an xyz graph over the CT scan of Morgan's chest to determine the specific areas which would need radiation and we were due to come back to begin the sessions on the 22nd of March.
