They call it "therapy"... radiation therapy

Much like chemo, if you've never actually been there, it's tough to imagine what it's like. If you think about it, anything that you HAVE to do every day, whether pleasant or not, becomes a drag after awhile. So the first few sessions aren't bad, but you'll tire quickly of making the drive to the clinic (that smells like frying human flesh the minute you walk through the door) and the routine--wait, wait, wait, then drop your pants. 
Again, struck by the sheer volume of patients....who knew so many people had cancer?  Many are elderly and obviously frail...having been assaulted first by the disease, then by the treatment. I heard very personal stories in the waiting room...someone told me I was lucky to have breast cancer, because it was SO treatable.  Much better than throat or head, because radiation there makes you not able to swallow.  Perspective is good--always someone in a worse state...makes you almost glad to "only" have vaginal cancer. I didn't correct the guy...who wants to tell an elderly gent with throat cancer that you have cancer of the vag? Let him assume that every middle aged female there has breast cancer. They obviously have much better PR people than the vaginal cancer group...
Anyway, the treatment consists of young and artifically upbeat radiation techs leading you into the room and, in the case of vaginal cancer, lying on a table face down with your ass (discretely covered with a thin towel) up in the air.  You can't see much since you're facing the ground, but basically, they align the machine so the beams hit the area defined by tattoos placed strategically to get the radiation directed at the right area.  Each session takes about 20 minutes, excluding waiting time. Everyone's case is undoubtedly different; I had to do this every day for six weeks. Possibly the longest six weeks of my life. 
It gets difficult to explain to people at work why, when you usually work until 6 or 6:30, you suddenly have to leave every day at 4.
Radiation makes you tired; radiation to the pelvis gives you diarrhea.  That's it in a nutshell.