Once Corinne’s personal mask was formed and hardened (and her tattoo was applied) she had been initiated for full membership in the closed-door ray cult. I’m joking. The reason that the door is closed when the linear accelerator produces and shoots x-rays is that radiation is extremely dangerous to human beings. It does cause cancer.

I mentioned before that the only two places I was not allowed to accompany Corinne (or Linda) during cancer treatments were the operating rooms and the radiation rooms. Surgeons have their scalpels and radiologists have their giant ray guns. (Okay, okay, and medical oncologists have their poisonous brews.) My experience is that, next to surgeons, radiation doctors are the most difficult to communicate with. I hope this isn’t true of everyone, but it’s become predictable to me after dealing with six surgeons and three radiation oncologists during two cancer cases. After significant effort on our part, we have been able to straighten out our relationships with two of the rad docs, but never with a surgeon. It was always our medical oncologist who helped us get clear communication with the radiation oncologist.

In contrast, radiation therapists are generally friendly people who can be a good source of information. And we never saw a rad doc pull the trigger on one of those machines. In the room with the lead door, the therapists run the show.