Fall 2015 Rads
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Welcome to the group, littleblueflowers!
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Welcome Littleblueflowers and daylily! Its looking like a beautiful garden in here!
Wow, I must have a different kind of radiation or machine? They didn't make me hold my breath at all. Do you think it depends on location? My tumor was at 1:00 and closer to the skin than the chest muscle
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Sky: I don't pretend to know all the ins and outs of cancer treatment, but (as I understand it) radiation treatment to the left side can affect our hearts. Holding our breath lifts the chest wall up and away from our heart, minimizing the problem. That just leaves us with worrying about our lungs and ribs. But no easy choices.
But not every RO has their patients do the breath holding, even if it is on the left. Not sure how they decide.
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I'm in this group too. I went for the CAT scan on Tuesday. Got two stickers, one between my boobs and one on the side of my boob undermy arm. I go back next Tuesday the 8th for the sim (?) and start on the 9th. I'm not sure how many, the RO said prob 33?
Everything has been weird with me. I still have a back drain in. Yes, 9 weeks now and still have a freking drain!!! Supposedly it will not be in the way of radiation since they are only doing my boob. Since the took so many axil nodes from my armpit and 27 were neg I guess I don't have much left in there and RO says he doesn't want to do my subclavical because of so many neg nodes were taken already. Fine with me. Idk, I have a different mindset than a lot of women I read on here. I don't really believe all these docs know what they are doing and just throw anything they got at us without knowing if it will work or not. Everything is based on statistics of reoccurance and as we see everyone is different. Rads are not like surgery were they are actually removing cancer they know is there. Nobody can tell me if there are cancer cells floating around me and if they are where they are shooting this radiation beam or not. That bothers me.
But anyway, sorry for that little rant. I'm more if a lurker than a poster. Im thankful for all the info and experiences i get from everyone!! Best wishes to all of you!!
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Rant away, Mira. You're not alone in being angry and frustrated! Having a drain still in place after nine weeks? Criminy.
I'd concede that the doctors know more that I do, but they don't know everything. Canadian protocol or full monty? Breath holding or not? Prone or supine? Tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors? Such a morass.
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qmc- aaah that makes perfect sense as mine is on the right side. So much to worry about...
Welcome mira! I get how you are feeling. I ask a lot of questions about the statistics because I am a numbers person and all of my doctors have been awesome about explaining which studies have been done, how many people in the study, and then results and how they might relate to me but there is still a chance you will fall into that percent that didn't benefit from the treatment. I think of doctors kind of like being a parent, you don't know everything but you do the absolute best you can with the information you have at the time
And the thought that one of those little bastards escaped and is wandering before they could catch it keeps me up at night.0 -
Hi, LittleBlue. I'm lurking here as an August completer.
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little blue , we trudged through chemo... Now we get to plow through rads. Nothing like spending years wearing gear to protect ourselves from fire only to expose ourselves layingon a table letting them burn us every day.😖
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2 treatments down! Should I be concerned that my skin around my lumpectomy scar is pink this afternoon? After only 2 treatments? I didn't really expect to see any change until 2 weeks in so now I am concerned this might not be a good sign.
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Skysquirrel, That is probably a temporary reaction. Hopefully you can access this article. If you can, so to page 2. It describes an early reaction that occurs the first 24-48 hours in some. That will disappear, and you should not see more of a reaction for a couple weeks.
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F0-387-2...
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Thank you, Kbee.I was having a touch of that myself, and was on the verge of asking my techs tomorrow about it. So, back to arm stiffness.
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Hi everyone-Thanks for the welcome. Is this the fall session of Camp Idonwannaburn, or do we get a new name LOL ?
Hi Kbeee, ksusan- We do travel in the best circles, don't we?
Ya know, Kbeee, now that you mention it, I can definitely appreciate the irony...
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(amused) It's the fall session of something. Would the previous ladies (and a few gentlemen) mind if we commandeered their name? Though given it's autumn, is a 'camp' theme even appropriate? Hmm....very little creativity coming to the fore. I'm open to suggestions for nicknames.
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kbeee I can't open the article past page 1. But thank you for giving me hope! I am a little sore tonight too and I was getting a little depressed thinking that if this is the beginning then I am screwed. (Pardon my language, I know I am horrible! I try to be good)
Maybe we can do some kind of back to school or Halloween theme? I do like camp idontwannaburn though, very cute
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Something about the beautiful fall colors?
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Sky: certainly a bit of strong language doesn't offend me. I've used some blistering language about cancer offline.
Halloween and/or fall foliage colors as a theme for our name makes sense. Slight preference for Halloween but nothing says we can't combine them. Let me sleep on this. My subconcious gets overactive in dreams.
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Still no dreams about group names.
This next is not to freak anyone out! Rather to document what's happening to me. The backstory is that, due to other medical issues, I'd guessed that I'd be bothered more by the side effects of radiation. Not affected more, but bothered more by what I did have. And I think that's pretty much what's happening. Well, that and I'm of the sardonic impression that the medical professionals with whom we're dealing tend to minimize side effects. That could be a lot of things: wanting to reassure us, not having been through the process themselves, having seen too many truly horrendous effects to be overly concerned with, say, stickiness under our armpits or not being able to shave.
Fourth treatment today, and I'm starting to get prickling inside my breast. Not unbearable, but it feels kind of like a baby hedgehog turning over in its sleep rather than a full-on porcupine on the loose. And crackly neckbones and stiffness in my pectoral muscle on the side which received surgical intervention.from lying on my back with my arms over my head and my head turned to the side. But I expected that! I'd already noticed twinges in my left arm after the surgery, especially after swimming/doing the Nautilus circuit.
Three-day weekend for me. I expect I'd have appreciated the break more later in treatment. Now I'm just champing at the bit to get this whole bleep process over with.
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Pumpkin that was my dream . my chest looks like a pumpkin all irregular and lumpy with tight bands, carved , mmmm and now its time to turn a shade of orange.
but im a positive pumpkin .
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May I join the group ? I have been a lurker since May when I was called back for a diagnostic mammogram and started on this journey.
I start 18 rad treatments (15 plus 3 boosts) on September 8th. I am doing the Canadian protocol (accelerated whole breast irradiation). I requested it at my RO consultation when I researched that I was eligible.
I had my simulation on Monday and I have 3 tattoos across my back - I am doing radiation in the prone position which is really uncomfortable because the table digs into my ribs on the right, but I already have issues with my lungs not working well and I am hoping to minimize any further risk.
I really appreciate reading how everyone is doing with their treatments and I will check out the summer rads group too.
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Goofyfoot: welcome to this group--I've added you to the official list. I'm not sure that there's any position that's wholly comfortable! But definitely read through the summer and spring rads groups as you have time. Reading the experiences of the women (and a few men) who came before me was helpful to me.
Daylily: (laughs/cries) Pumpkins might be a good theme for our group if we come up with a name. I'm feeling a bit goblinish as I look at myself in the mirror and certainly Halloween's one of my favorite holidays.
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I'm cross-posting today's post-radiation photo. This is 1.5 weeks after boosts were finished. It looks a little scary, but is actually nothing unexpected.
Dark skin rubbing off (not really peeling) along the scar and in the axillary area. Anywhere deep brown (like the line at the top of my underarm) is going to rub off. The pink circle in the shape of West Virginia is where I had sticker dermatitis. It's the only part that has actually peeled. The general radiated field is rapidly shifting from pink to tan. Skin is a little tight where you can see creases to the right of my underarm, but not swollen and I still have all but about .5" of my range of motion. It does feel a little sore if I sweat and the skin of my arm rubs the pink part. There is a 2F temperature differential between my left and right pectorals.
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Thank you for the update, Susan.
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HI All, I'm just popping in from the summer camp group to wish you all well. I just finished 33 treatments yesterday. On to chemo in October. I came out with minimal effects. Just some soreness, redness, itching yadayada....
My secret weapons.......
1. Dove sensitive skin soap.
2. "California Baby" Cream. This was recommended to me. It is a calendula based cream found in baby dept. at Target.
I started creaming 3x/day: AM, after treatment and before bed. START DAY 1. BEFORE YOUR SKIN SHOWS SYMPTOMS!
3. I started aquaphor 2 x /day to areas once they started getting open and red.
4. Bought several inexpensive camisoles and tank tops to wear under my bra. I could wear my under wires throughout.
This cushions the bra and keeps cream from rubbing off on clothes and bra.
I know everyone is different but can say it wasn't as bad as I Thought. My fatigue has been worse than skin issues. Acupuncture and mild exercise helped some.
Had 8 boosts to my incision at the end and my underarm was already healing considerably. Will keep up with the cream for another few week.
Best wishes everyone !!!
Pat
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I had radiation last September and I finished in October. I did the Canadian study also. The Candadian study uses the same amount of radiation for the whole treatment but for less weeks. I had radiation for 4 weeks but my RO used the same amount of radiation as I would have had for 6 weeks of radiation.I had no side effects from the radiation except for minor skin irritation and fatigue. The cream did the trick. I didn't feel the fatigue until about 1 month after the radiation ended. It was not bad.
I am allergic to adhesive so my RO used special tape with me over the magic marker lines. I had magic marker rather than tatoos.
Good luck to everyone.
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Sky...and others...
I was told to use Tom's deodorant.
MariaTeresaG
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Congratulations Pat! Nice to be moving forward isn't it?0
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I have an arm and hammer brand deodorant I ordered off of Amszon which is metallic free and it seems to work well.
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614: Thank you for checking in with the later group. It's nice to hear from someone who had minimal SEs.
kbee: Another thank you! Not that I object to Tom's of Maine, but I'm glad to hear of others. There must be a list somewhere, although atarting by asking your RO or rad-techs is probably a good place to start.
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I use just straight baking soda. Just pat it on. Seems to work ok...
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Littleblueflowers: does that help with the skin irritation? (like using cornstarch) I'm not getting rads to my underarm per se, but many are, and even without, I can well imagine getting chafing farther down.
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