Just a quick update:
Today was my radiation treatment halfway point. Fourteen down fourteen to go. So far, so good with negligible side effects, mostly some headaches derived from the hormones, not the radiation.
I leave my house at 7:30am on the dot and I'm back home at 8:15. Easy. They give you a key card to keep, you card yourself in, go to a little waiting room, in three minutes someone comes to get you. You hop on the table, slide your sweatpants down and in 12 minutes you're done for the day. Extremely nice people working there too! Really impressed with the efficiency of it all.
I've always been a little loopy, but in a very odd way, I look forward to going each morning. At the same time, I often can't believe that I'm going through this...this happens to other people, not me!
I learned that this is a Varian VMAT CBCT machine which is supposed to be the latest and greatest. More benefits, fewer downsides.
I never even think about the cost of such things but
@Midpack's posts made me look. So far, I'm up to $81,454 with an OOP of just $94 (yes, ninety four dollars). More to come I'm sure. But it looks like most of the expense is frontloaded in preparation for the treatment. Pretreatment surgeries, tests, consultations, Cat/Pet scans etc.
What was surprising was the price of each day's treatment: $207! Yes, it's only 12 minutes, but considering it's a multimillion dollar machine with maybe another million in support infrastructure and three nurse/technicians, I wouldn't have been surprised to see a $1000 daily price tag.
So I'm on my way to a cure (gotta keep that attitude!) and after April 3, I'll report back. Yes, they have a big bell and I'm going to ring it on day 28!!
Thanks to all for the encouragement so far.