So here we sit in the waiting room at the Burr Proton Therapy Center. As usual we left Northampton at ten for the 100 mile commute in. The ride this morning was as smooth as possible until we hit Storrow Dr. Then Orion got a call from the cyclotron techs that the machine had broken down and they hoped that he had not left for Boston yet. He laughed and told them that he was already in town.
We walked down to Whole Wallet, our favorite criminally priced food store and found some lunch. No tables though-each of the seven tables were occupied by one individual, not eating but using cell phones. We headed back to the River Cafe at Yawkey and had a lovely meal before coming into the Proton Center to be told to wait. No information.
The way this works is that there are several gantries or ports that protons can be shunted out of the cyclotron's tunnel of accelerated particles. This allows MGH to treat more patients at the same time, important since this is insanely expensive. Apparently one gantry is out of order and patients are piling up. So to speak. Given that we are seeing fewer people here and there is some traffic it looks good although I dread the Friday traffic.
Update as I write this! The technician came out told us the problem is in a few wires that are being replaced and we are looking at about an hour and a half delay. BUT she also told us that we get to go into the control room and chat with the physicist in charge to "kill" time!
More anon.
this had to be right up Orion's alley! had to be a nasty ride home on a Friday afternoon though.
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