Last week, it was time to get yet more tiny brain tumours zapped.
I can say this so nonchalantly because it was the fifth time in my life I have been strapped to a bed and had tiny bits of my grey matter nuked by invisible forces.
If I think about it, I have had my noggin’ treated more often than I have been to the dentist over the last six years.
A stage 4 “lifer” has better things to do than get her teeth checked (my ex-dentist uncle who is an avid reader of this column will be hanging his head in shame – sorry Mike!).
I won’t even try to explain to you how gamma knife radiosurgery works but I will tell you it’s bloody clever.
REMIND to 70500.
Thankfully for me, the technology has got so smart I didn’t even have metal screws bolted to my head this time.
You may remember I was traumatised by this back in July, so the team at the Gamma Knife Centre at Queens Square in London did everything in their power to make this session as trauma free for me as possible – and I am so grateful.
Two days prior to my treatment I had a special mask moulded to my face and head which would act as a sort of restraint.
My tumours are tiny, so avoiding any kind of movement is crucial.
The machine now has a clever sensor that will know if I move even a millimetre. The game “sleeping lions” didn’t exist in Germany when I was a child but if it had, I would have been the champion of it.
When Friday came I spent three one-hour sessions trying my very hardest to drift away to much nicer places, imagining the tumours getting melted away.
Visualisations can be very handy for cancer treatment and I am a bit of a pro now. I was accompanied by a couple of amazing friends on treatment day who ensured the whole event was a far cry from distressing.
I have seen the gamma knife team more than I see some of my pals and they are some of the kindest, most dedicated people I have ever met.
It was nice to feel like I had made the right decision in finding this treatment back in February.
Novel cancer treatments exist. Your oncologist may not point you in their direction, but that doesn’t mean you can’t access them.
Be your own health detective, your quality of life may depend on it.
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