Re: Nanki-Poo had his first radiation treatment today

On Apr 4, 1:25 am, "Joy" <toas...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
What an ordeal! I picked up the food in the morning, and blocked the door in
the middle of the afternoon when I knew both cats were in. It wasn't too
hard to catch Nanki-Poo when it was time, but he struggled a lot when I was
putting him in the carrier, and he kept struggling once he was inside. He
cried pitifully for several minutes, was quiet for a while, then cried the
rest of the way. The TomTom wasn't much help, because it didn't want me to
go the back way. It kept telling me to turn around. When I finally got on
the freeway, it figured things out and took me to the right place. At first
I still couldn't find it. It was in a long area like a strip mall. Most of
the businesses didn't have any addresses, or they had suite numbers. I had
the instruction *** I'd been given, and was looking at the top. That ***
had been give to me at the oncologist's office, and what it said at the top
was the name of that business. Finally I found the real name, and saw where
the business was.

I tried the front door and it was locked. Then I thought I remembered
something about going to the back door. I walked around in back, carrying
Nanki-Poo in his carrier. Then, when I got to the back, none of the doors
were marked, so I wasn't sure which one it was. A man saw me and told me the
right one. He was just leaving after having his cat or dog treated. He said
they usually put a sign on the door, but there wasn't one today. He said you
have to knock. I did, and nothing happened. Then a woman from the parking
came up to me and asked if I was there to have my cat treated. I said yes,
and she said she was there for the same thing. She said her appointment had
been for 5:45, but she hadn't found a way to get in. I told her what the man
had said, and then used my keys to knock louder.

She went back to her car, and someone finally opened the door. My
appointment wasn't until 6:30, so I told him about the woman. He said they'd
take her cat first, and then take Nanki-Poo. I was early, and her
appointment was before mine, so that was fine with me. He said he couldn't
let anybody in the building. I carried Nanki in his carrier around in front
where I'd parked, drove around and parked in back. A little before 6:15,
somebody brought the woman's cat back to her car. A little later a woman
came out looking for me. She took Nanki in. I asked her if she knew where I
could find a rest room, and she apologized for not being able to let me in..
She told me there was a McDonald's a little way down the street, and that it
would be about half an hour to 45 minutes.

I went to McDonald's, and while I was there I decided I might as well get
something to eat, because I was already tired and knew I wouldn't feel like
cooking by the time I got home. Then I drove back, ate in the car, and
waited. And waited. At 7:15, I tried knocking on the door with my keys, but
nobody came. I got in my car and looked for a phone number on the papers I'd
been given. I couldn't find a phone number for the facility. The name of it
was there, so I called Information, but they couldn't find a phone number
either. I remembered that the oncologist had said their facility was open
24/7, so I called them and asked for the phone number. The phone rang a long
time before somebody answered. Then I was put on hold. When I finally got to
talk to somebody, I explained, and she put me on hold again. After a minute
or two, she came back on and asked me to spell my last name. Then she put me
back on hold. I waited several minutes, and then somebody came out and over
to my car, so I hung up. The woman who came out said that it would be
another 10 minutes or so, because they wanted to wait for him to wake up
from the anesthetic.

Finally, about 7:35, the man I'd talked to first brought Nanki out. He
explained that they were treating him on both sides of the neck and had done
some sort of imaging to make sure they had the right spot. He said that it
wouldn't take so long after this. Nanki-Poo complained for a while once we
started home, but then he was quiet for a long time. I think he was probably
sleeping. Eventually he woke up and complained some more. I finally got home
about 8:20. I was really wiped out, and very glad I'd eaten. I can't afford
to eat out every day, so I think after this I'll take a sandwich to eat
while I wait.

When we got home, Nanki-Poo wanted to go out, but he was still groggy, so I
didn't think that was a good idea. I shoed him the litter box, then started
fixing their food. He came out and ate. Every time I was in the kitchen, he
went to the back door wanting out, but I wouldn't open it. I watched some
TV, and after a while he got up and napped on my lap. I had to put him down
when I finally got up. He seems okay, but he's obviously still groggy. I'd
been told it would wear off pretty quickly, so I'm hoping they kept him out
longer because of the extra imaging they did, and after this it won't last
so long.

--
Joy

My mind is like a parachute...it functions only when open.

I'll make this fairly short including purrs for Nanki. I am retired
nationally-licensed radiology tech
and what your cat is having is called radiation therapy; it takes an
additional year of study and a
very tough license exam, but such as I are licensed and able to
*assist* in this practice, but not
unsupervised.....which I did when working in facilities having a rad
therapy section of radiology.
All the above re hoomin patients.
Now: I never worked on animals but there is nothing mysterious and
nothing to be worried nor
indignant about....except maybe lack of explanation from employees you
dealt with. Forget the
other pet owners....they don't know any more than you do therefore
can't be blamed for lack of
411 to you. Rad therapy rooms in hospitals have doors that cannot be
opened except by special
switches only personnel know locations of. If a non-patient (or in
your case, pet owner) managed
to get into the therapy room you would get a blast of ionizing
radiation from the machine, which
once calculated and set up, runs automatically, circulating in a 360o
orbit around purple-pen marked
bullseye tumor or whatever on restrained patient. This is hoomins I am
talking. The tech is outside
the treatment room, watching through radiation proof window the whole
time.
A sad word of heads-up to Joy: Nanki may lose fur bigtime, just like
those breast cancer women
you see bald from having this same thing - radiation and/or
chemo...did you think breast cancer
made them bald? Uh uh. Hope Nanki doesn't lose fur but just warning in
case he does it is a
side effect of radiation.
This as I said is the short version. Glad to be of help. Therapy techs
in my former work are among
the highest regarded of all types. I was a simple hard working ER
trauma tech. There is NO way
I wanted to do therapy, I only assisted now and then, setting up
patients or doing a smaller machine
called "ortho" unit which treated keloids (scars) and skin
cancers....not the big guns mentioned
above. As I stated before, I don't do death well. Rad therapy is
*treatment* radiation, not the
diagnostic kind I used for 30 years.
Summation: I don't really know but suspect the locked doors and
"escort" vet personnel were simply
trying to do what we all in rad tech employment do: keep non-patients
out of radiation area.
.

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