Radiation recovery
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cuddly clothes---can I fake a seroma???LOL
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I can vouch for breast massage....they call it lymphadema. Does wonders all right! Lol
Happy day after everyone. I had left over roast veggies,(asparagus and bell peppers and sweet potatoes for dinner tonight....wonderful. I won't mention what I plan on having for dessert....
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Congrats on ending Rads ChiSandy. Hope you continue to heal.
We had a great Thanksgiving and still have another dinner this afternoon with DH's family. Sister and BIL were in town from Georgia as well as recently married nephew and his wife. One of my brothers and SIL hosted dinner Thursday night. Food was awesome. We brought a fried turkey we purchased from the KofC at our church.
DS came with X GFF and the babies and her two girls. They were monster hits. Everyone was so gracious and helpful. Could not have scripted it any better except the shellacking we got playing Trivial Pursuit. Still fun.
Yesterday was the 50th annual Turkey Bowl football game. Age is catching up with my brothers - they got steamrolled by the younger players! Pizza at Pizza Cafe after the game funded by my other brother which was realkt generous. There were 20 people there. I skipped it to meet my sister.
Last night DH and I went to dinner with my sister and BIL and one brother. Food was really good. OMG I have to stop eating and I will after today.
Hope you all had a nice holiday too. Christmas decorations are going up inside tomorrow and outside next weekend unless it stops raining.
Diane
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Hi everyone. Just popping In to say hello and Happy Thanksgiving. Life is busy for me these days. I just finished a three year IRS audit. It took almost a full year. I am so glad it is over, and of course we owe money. I think it usually ends that way for most people. I am just glad it is over. Glad to see you are all doing well. I cooked Thanksgiving dinner this year for my daughter and her family. We had a wonderful holiday. The grandkids are still with is, but going home at some point today. Life is good, and I am so grateful. Sorry for the bold letters. I can't make it stop! Thinking of all of you, and sending love
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Gigil, so glad to hear from you. Glad the audit is over for you. Sounds like you had a nice thanksgiving.Enjoy those grandkids!!
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Gigil, great to hear from you. Good to know you survived the IRS.....what a load. Take care of those babies.....
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Gigil - whew I know you are so glad the audit is over. Sorry IRS prevailed. I can relate. We lost our battle with them too.
I know you are enjoying those grandchildren. Me too. Precious little angels who go home with their parents. Haha.
My DH's firm does the nicest thing at Christmas. There is a place called Youth Villages that houses young men with virtually no other place to go. His firm asks each employee to adopt one of these young men for Christmas. You get a list of things he would like for Christmas that include everyday staples like underwear and socks. Really sad. Anyway I went shopping yesterday for our young man. I bought almost everything on the list like Legos Star Wars, Green Bay Packers t'shirt, art supplies, lightweight jacket and decided to splurge and get him the 2 GB IPod he wanted. He also asked for a LeBron basketball. Not getting that. Can't afford it. DH and I don't typically buy each other anything for Christmas. Hope he likes what we got him. My sister and BIL adopt a whole family from their church. Wonderful gesture.
Gotta start hitting the clearance toys for our12 grandchildren. Bought the babies another activity blanket with mobile. Now they can both have one.
Another horrible shooting. When does this end? No place is safe. Heartbreaking.
Diane
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Diane, so sweet of you to buy that young man everything on his list
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my new haircut!!
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Josie, Looks great. Very professional, and fun too.
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Oh, and Edwards, that is a very nice thing you are doing for that young man for Christmas. And, it's not the firm doing it, but you guys.....they just identified possible recipients. I've got decorating on my list of things to do today, although it will probably take more than a day.
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Hi All,
I am new to this site and have never done ANY social media so I am a neophyte. I just finished Proton Beam radiation to the left breast, axilla and chest wall. Most of my skin has fallen off and I have 2nd degree radiation burns. Does anyone have wound care suggestions? My radiation oncologist is pretty useless and his nurse just keeps giving me these different products to try but I am at a loss here. I do have a lot of burn care experience but I don't know the best thing for radiation burns.
Mother Willow
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Mother Willow---are they having you do saline soaks? I don't know about the degree of burn and what the proper protocol is, but I had the skin open up under my boob and weep and they had me do saline soaks and saw me every other day. They wanted to treat with Silverdene but because of a severe sulfa allergy they could not. Finally they got me som e crème from a compounding pharmacy and I grew skin overnight wit h it. Do not rub your skin because it is so fragile that you cold take the new skin right off. When new skin forms, it is rather questionable looking, but you do not want to disturb it.
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Thank you Redhead1. I am using some Silvadene and this new solid silver based foam stuff that absorbs all of the drainage but it pulls off all of the old, dead skin when I remove it. I tried aloe packs and honey packs but I think I got a yeast infection at the site from that so I am now using the silver based therapies above. I think I will add the saline soaks as you recommended because it should clean, sooth and will not encourage yeast! Thanks
MotherWillow
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MotherWillow: can't help with the burn question except offer sympathy, but welcome to the boards. You're doing fine. (I don't think there's a really wrong way to go about asking politely for help, though we may occasionally ask for more information.)
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Mother willow--I can't imagine your RO is not directing your care and telling you exactly what to do. You can't get saline here without a prescription. You said you just finished yor rads. It took me about 2 and a half weeks to grow skin....so be patient . Don't treat it with anything other that what your RO tells you to do.....burns are not something you want to muck up .
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mother Willow, I agree that your RO should be more closely working with you on these burns. I also had bad radiation burns and used silver sulfadene, then I used triamcinolone cream, and 10 days later advanced to clobetasol. All were prescription meds. The last helped the most, but probably because I was just about done with rads. When rads finished and the skin was healing and no longer super painful I went on to using calendula cream, by Byron (get it at Amazon). Be very careful with that new skin as Redheaded suggested. And if the honey thing you were using was medi-honey that is actually a debridement cream which is the last thing you need. I think you will be done much much better within 2 weeks of finishing rads but continue to use lots and lots of cream very gently for 3 to 6 months...it will help. Good luck, and congrats on finishing rads....at least the worst is over now.
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Mother Willow, welcome and congrats on being done with rads. I'm so sorry your burnt so badly
I agree theRO should be able to help you. Can you get a second opinion if your not satisfied with your care ?
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Josie I love your new haircut. its a lot like mine, which I have been growing out for over a year.....
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Thanks Diane!!
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Got some disturbing news Saturday. My mother in law told me my daughter is moving 3 hours away with her current boyfriend. Remember she is currently living with my mother in law. She even gave her 2 weeks notice at her waitress job. She and her bf will be living with a friend of his until they find a place. We were shocked and heartbroken . Her sister took it hard and cried a lot last night. I wanted to cry but didn't . She finally told us Sunday after work. I acted like I didn't know because I wanted to hear her tell me. I hope she gets the job she has the interview for. If not I told her to get a online real estate license. She already had that idea. Its a happening place in the summer and lots of people have lake lots and houses or vacation homes. I wanted to support her even though I think it might be a mistake. She is the type that will do just the opposite of what you suggest usually . Her boyfriend is supposed to have a job lined up too
. Got to go to work. Also bad news about my dear father in law. His cancer is back and he will be facing more chemo again. We had a home project we did . Replaced our posts that hold up our front porch. I got to help my hubby while we let my fil supervise.
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((((Josie)))) Nothing else to say but hugs to you. Life just loves to throw curveballs, eh? xo
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So sorry to hear your dd is moving, Josie; so glad she'll still be within driving distance, miserable schlep and slog though that will be. I hope she gets the job she has in mind. Your hair is very glamorous, by the way.
Happy the audit is finally done with, Gigi, and hope you will find something really fun to do with all your extra time.
So proud of you, Diane. Everybody everywhere seems to give to children, and even oldsters. This is the first I've heard of making Christmas or Hannukah special for young adults. Very impressed!
Well, I've been feeling like I'm living in a fog, drifting off to sleep at odd times, and regularly having to park the car so I can take a little nap. I'd been blaming it on arimidex, but I switched to tamoxifen a few months ago (joint aches and tendon issues are gone, gone, gone), so it finally occurred to me to have a sleep study. Turns out I have severe sleep apnea with greater than 30 "events" per hour. Well, no wonder I can't seem to function! Seems I'm barely getting any rest. Now I can look forward to being Sleeping Beauty (or Beast) with one of those lovely CPAP machines. Joy.
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Brookside, have you looked into having a sleep mouth-guard made instead? Costs a bit more than CPAP, but doesn’t take up any space (except in its little soaking case when you’re not wearing it) and uses no electricity. I had a sleep study before my first knee replacement surgery because I had a “crowded airway;” and though I never stopped breathing I had “multiple small awakenings” (which I always thought were turn-overs just to let one sinus or another drain). The guard moves your lower jaw forward so you have a totally clear airway and can breathe with your mouth open and on your back without even snoring.
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Brookside....I just got my cpap machine 2 weeks ago. Apparently I was having 78 episodes per hour., so definitely severe. Anyway, I just love this thing. It's totally quiet, once you figure out how loose/tight to make it I've never slept so well. I no longer am getting up every hour or 2 to use the bathroom either. Apparently the apnea was waking me up all the time. I wondered if it would work as I'm a moith breather, and my sinuses get clogged but it's just fine and no more totally dry mouth all night long. It did take Apria 6 weeks to get me the machine....they definitely aren't my favorite company to say the least. Good luck with yours.
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Josie, your haircut looks great. Sorry to hear about your dd moving and your fil.
Motherwillow - sorry to hear about your burns. I would pester your RO big time to help.
Tomorrow, I have a CAT scan to start the radiation. I have to ask about the lotions and deoderant. I fear getting burns and fatigued more than I am now. Feeling old. My surgeon was nice enough to let me heal from lump. and to do 2 holiday craft shows (I make jewelry), so I just saw RO last week.
I'm not looking forward to it, except for the fact that it reduces the risk of reoccurence from 25% to 5%. With those numbers, I can't argue.
Linda
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Josie - your haircut is too cute! Sorry about your DD moving. I think we all can identify as parents when you object to their decisions a lot of times they do it anyway just to spite us. It's really hard to let them make their own mistakes but we know we have to. How else will they learn?
Sorry about your FIL too. Recurrence is the fear that comes with the dreaded C word. Keep us posted on how he is doing.
Thank you Brookside and Josie the young men at Youth Villages need so much.
I don't know much about sleep apnea except a X friend's DH had to go the hospital and stay a few nights and then be outfitted with I thought some kind of mask and a machine installed. Bless you and Sew now you guys can get some sleep.
My Dad's birthday is tomorrow. It's hard to believe he has been gone 15 years. Its also one of my brother's birthday. I had 2 brothers before him but my parents decided to name this one junior and ironically he is the one most like my dad.
Mother willow - I can't help with the burn questions either. I was blessed not to have any issues with RADS and I did use the silver sulfadane. I agree with others maybe you need a new RO. Mine was really nice and helpful although he was a man of few words mainly yes or no.
DH's company Christmas party is Friday night at the Butcher Shop. The past few years it has been at a really nice country club which I'm sure cost a small fortune. I like that they usually change venues every year or so. One year they had it at the zoo's party room. Grossly overpriced and totally unimpressed with food, etc. Company wasn't impressed either. Still nice of them to have a Christmas party because so many companies don't anymore. They even have a drawing for prizes. DH won a Vizio TV.
Have a good week everyone!
Diane
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Thanks for the thought, ChiSandy. I have a consultation scheduled in a few weeks and will really grill him on options. If a simple mouthguard works, well that's sure going to be my choice!
Wow, Sew, 78/hour must be a record! You sure excel at apnea! I never gave a thought to the possibility that I might have to wait for the stupid appliance to show up. I've been (naively, I guess) assuming all would be taken care of and I'd be full of energy by the end of January. This is a bit of an issue as I'll be on short term disability for the time being. Because I live equidistant from everywhere, most of my clients are an hour or two away and I've been scheduling an extra half hour into my travel time so I can pull over and take a nap when I get groggy. Stupid, risky behavior, I know. Actually, I'm hoping my company will approve disability. Driving is not technically central to my job (financial sales), but a normal first apointment is about two face-to-face hours., so I'm dead in the water if I'm off the road.
MotherWillow, I hope your skin is healing nicely by now. Shame on your RO for not being more helpful. At my facility, different RO's were available on different days. Could you maybe see a different doc?
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Good luck tomorrow, lindab. I found the whole pre-rads routine pretty weird--lying with my arms over my head, getting teeny-tiny tattoos, big, scary room . Don't hesitate to ask for a warm blanket if you find it chilly. As for lotions, I used emu oil every morning (at least three or four--I forget which--hours before treatment) and night, used a cream they gave out after treatment. I wore a white cotton T under everything. It absorbed the grease and felt protective against my skin.
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Brookside.....yes, apparently I never really slept at all, lol. The only down side to this cpap machine is I now dream. Before my sleep never got deep enough to dream. Oh how fun getting older is. Good luck on your disability claim, it sure does seem like you shouldn't be driving much more than a few miles at a time.
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