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Treatment is given at Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology in the radiotherapy department and patients need to stay as an in-patient on a ward at Clatterbridge (Patients who are children normally stay in Alder Hey Children's Hospital).
The radiotherapy treatment is given twice a day over 4 days. Each treatment session will take about 30 - 45 minutes in total.
For the treatment, patients are asked to lie on a bed and small measuring devices are placed at certain points on the body. Bags of Vaseline are placed around the legs, the neck and the waist. A large perspex screen is placed beside the patient. The Vaseline bags and the screen are there to ensure an even dose of radiotherapy to the whole body.
During the treatment, patients are given anti-sickness drugs through a drip.
After this the patient may return to the ward (Patients who are children can then return to Alder Hey Children's Hospital).
You will have a treatment first thing in the morning and then again later in the afternoon, with at least a six hour gap between treatments. You need to be in hospital for your TBI treatment.
The treatment machine will make a loud buzzing noise but you will not feel anything and it will not touch you - it is like having an x-ray. You have radiation on both sides of your body.
You should sit still as you can during the treatment. Your radiographers will try to make you as comfortable as possible.
You are on your own in the room during treatment, but the radiographers are just outside. They watch you on a TV screen to make sure you are all right.
