The nuclear option

1813aqov5wc2jjpgI’ve now had two radiation treatments, (18 to go!) and so far, I’m not glowing in the dark. For that matter, I’m not really “glowing” at all. I’m exhausted. But then again, I’ve been working 14 hours a day for the last couple days, and have been dealing with technology problems including the death of two laptops. Ugh.

Radiation at this point is both no big deal, and a pain in the ass. At the moment it’s no big deal because I don’t have any side effects, and I’m not really expected to have any for a couple weeks. It’s a pain in the ass because it’s every weekday, and in order to minimize the impact on my work life, I took the first appointment I could get in the morning. So I start my day every day by getting up and heading for the radiation oncology department at St. Joe’s.

I’m not really a morning person, and this ain’t helping.

Now that I’ve been there a couple days, though, I’ve met some of the other folks who have appointments around mine. I figure we might as well get to know each other, since we’ll be seeing each other every day.

Also, maybe I was spoiled by the folks at Atlanta Cancer Care, who were all so very personable and pleasant, but the people who work in this practice, particularly the front office folks, are about as personable as a turd. That, and Suzanne has likened it to a car wash. They call you in over the phone loudspeaker, you go in, you get treated, and you get out. You pass the last person to get treated in the hall as he’s on his way out. I think they run appointments every 15 minutes. Figure if they work a regular 8-hour day, they treat 32 people a day. I guess if I was a rad tech in that type of environment, I wouldn’t be all that personable either. But the front office staff don’t have any excuse.