Hooking up to Electa

I have been asked what happens when I have radiation treatments. Basically, I lie on my back on a motorised treatment table. The technicians start by getting me to lie on the table in pretty much the same place on the each time. When they are satisfied with their manual positioning, they put a nose clip on my nose and a mouthpiece attached to a flexible tube is put into my mouth. I breathe in and out through the mouthpiece. Next they make three passes with the machine and create a scan which they compare to the original scan on which my treatment position and angles were calibrated. After comparing my position each day with the original scan, they use the mechanics of the machine to make fine adjustments to the position of the bed to get me in the exact position I was in on the set up and calibration day. The final steps are the 6 short bursts of radiation. In treatment mode, the arms of the machine move around me, I am asked to take and hold a deep breath for up to 30 seconds, and in those 30 second periods, a beam of radiation is fired into me from different angles (not that I see any rays or beams). The purpose of holding my breath is so that my lungs and internal organs do not move when the radiation beam is fired. The longest part of the session is the positioning and fine adjustments. The active radiation treatment takes less than 10 minutes.