Ok I hope this doesn’t sound like I’m just patting myself on the back but I felt like sharing. After taking the prerequisites over the past two years, Anatomy and Physiology, Chemistry, Physics, And some other random stuff I finally got into Radiation Therapy school and started this week. The staff and professors at my school are amazing, one of the instructors who is also a dosimetrist has been working in this field for over forty years and I’m amazed at how much she knows, she’s been working in this field since almost its infancy.
My class size is very small which I think will be a good thing in that the instructors will have the time to really focus on the individuals and help us along with the program. During our orientation we got to play with the linear accelerator and the CT machine they use for planning cancer treatments, we obviously don’t know much of anything yet but I’m already fascinated with what we have learned. We had a lab where we got to cut photon and electron blocks from Styrofoam and pour the heavy metal mixture which contains stuff like lead and cadmium to block the amount of radiation from the source depending on the treatment plan, apparently they used to have to do this a lot in the field but now the machine can do most of it within limits.
Really I’m just amazed how advanced the field has become with procedures like brachiotherapy where they place the radiation source directly inside the patient for treatment, the planning and organization is amazing, the oncology team involves so many people: the physician, physicist, dosimetry, the actual radiation therapist. Looking forward to graduating in two years, and being able to say that I help cure cancer for a living! After muddling around getting my prerequisites out of the way I now feel like I’m part of something larger than myself, and actually learning the ins and outs of the job, putting all my prior education to use in a real world application.
