Fall 2015 Rads
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I had my first rads yesterday. I had to lie facedown without moving for 30 minutes as they had to take extra pics before and after. My left hand and left ankle started to cramp even though I was relaxed (I have been hiking a steep short mountain every morning for exercise) and by the time I got up they were both asleep and a pad gave out as I lifted up and I fell back onto the bed as it fell to the ground. Talk about feeling feeble. And I am an avid (albeit overweight) snowboarding grandma.
I was surprised last night that I had pain - it felt like someone was pinching or stabbing me inside above my areola. I guess I didn't realize there would be pain, other than burning feelings. It was tolerable and I live with a lot of joint pain so I am not unfamiliar with the concept of pain, I was just unaware.
Everything is fine today. And I have an acupuncture appointment this morning - one of the freebies and I always wanted to try it, so why not !
I am including a picture of the beautiful lake view at the top of my daily hike (I started on the 1st). It only takes 20 minutes to get up there, but it is steep !
Good luck to everyone today !
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Wow Goofyfoot, that is amazingly beautiful!
I have had a rough couple days. Not sure if its the Tamoxifen kicking in, anxiety or just.. I don't know general crabbiness or fed-up-ness? But I am definitely short fused and at the same time ready to burst into tears at any moment. Having a teenage daughter is a strain on my patience and emotions also.
Had my weekly appt with the RO. Showed him the pinkness in my breast - not from radiation. Maybe an infection or reaction to Aquaphor. Told him about pains I am having around my incisions -not from radiation. What a very strange coincidence that this stuff started at the same time as rads. I didn't say it in a complaining way, he asked if there was any change and wanted to see so I told him. Whatever, it irritated me to the point where I just shut down.
I am just full of happiness and joy today right? Sorry! I just needed to vent somewhere where I know people will understand
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Goofyfoot: my sympathies about the cramping while you were on the table! I've only had pre-cramps in my legs yet. I've noticed the stabbing too, though to me it feels like multiple pricklings.
OxfordLady: just checking that you didn't mind having your name up on the list.
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Goofyfoot,
Beautiful photo! Do you mind if I ask the name of the lake? I'm an avid hiker, and a couple of years ago I spent several days hiking the mountains of Connecticut. It looks very familiar :-)
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Wildflower, that is Candlewood Lake, the largest lake in Connecticut, right near the southwest border with New York. I live here 3 weeks out of 4, working from home, to be near my young grandchildren in NY, and then back one week living in New Hampshire to be back in the office in Massachusetts. Sweet deal I arranged for 2 years - moved here in April and then went back the next month for a routine mammogram...and here I am in this fun forum.
Acupuncture was great today. I came out of it in a really happy mood that lasted through my radiation and then my hike in the humidity and heat.
Definitely feeling internal breast pain again though. Nothing to complain about, just noting it. The pain is not anywhere that had pain for the 2 lumpectomies either.
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Sky: possibly Tamoxifen, possibly stress of starting rads (that is upsetting! I teared up the first couple of days myself), possibly irritation of dealing with RO.....
Goofyfoot: (sheepishly) I suddenly clicked on the (possible) meaning of your name--it's to do with which way you face when snowboarding?
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queenmomcat: yes, right foot forward. To determine if you are goofy or regular, run towards a non-carpeted surface like a kitchen floor in your socks, and slide across the floor (then pick yourself up off the floor after crashing). Whichever foot was forward would be the lead foot on a snowboard/skateboard/surfboad. Term apparently came from an early cartoon of Goofy riding a surfboard with the less common stance -
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Amazing what you learn from PBS kids shows. (This was from the now-defunct Fetch with Ruff Ruffman.)
Today's rads notable only because the technicians had to stop and re-measure my breathing pattern. No idea what that was about. In, out, in, out? Or perhaps it's the timing. Shrug.
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zzzzzzzzzz. I am glad that I feel good during the day and have energy, but by 7:00, I am ready for bed. Ugh. Just like chemo. Other than work nights, I will just go to bed by 8:00.
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I fall asleep at 10 with my 20 mg of melatonin, wake by 1, and sleep fitfully the rest of the night.
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Hi there, I'm in for the "fall haul" 😜
I finished chemo on the 15th of July, had a UMX and ALND on the 18th of August, start a year long corse of Herceptin on the 23rd of September and have my first appointment with the RO on the 13th of September. Feel like I have come so far but still have so much further to go!!
Radiation is probably the biggest unknown to me as I have been so focussed on getting through chemo and surgery.
Looking forward to sharing this part of the journey 😀
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Dimccleland: welcome to the group! I've put you down for a tentative start date of September 21--happy equinox--fall or spring, depending on your hemisphere (though not sure how much Dubai has in the way of seasons) I can't speak personally for how radiation compares to chemotherapy, though others may be able to help you there. Rest assured, that it's not nearly as daunting (yet) as I'd feared.
KSusan: sleep issues are definitely something that crops up for some/most of us. My sympathies to you; my PCP put me on Trazodone rather than any of the anxiolytics or melatonin, so I don't usually pop wide awake until about 5-6 hours after I've gone to sleep.
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2/33. Boob is warmer than the other. I also feel a little stinging now and then. It's strange having to go there every morning unbotton my shirt, lay on a table, watch the big machine, listen to it buzz, button up and leave. 10 minutes in all. So routine....but my boob is getting radiation shot thru it. It is surreal.
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Mira: definitely surreal! I still haven't gotten over the feeling that I've landed in a science fiction movie film set or something. But my irradiated boob is definitely warmer than the poor lonely limp untreated one. I've got a couple of gel packs that I use (over clothes!) when I get home, but wondering now if there's a specific product out there for people undergoing (breast) cancer treatment.
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Lets take surreal a little further: My feeling is that the rad machine (Hester) is sucking life to stay alive, but she feels bad about it so is trying to both get what she needs and help us out incidentally if she can. She's not evil, but just trying to survive and we are her food source. That's why we are so tired after getting fried. Wonder if this whole cancer thing is a condition put on us by aliens just to get us to the rad machine so we can feed it??? Yeah, I'm supposed to be editing papers right now...
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Ha, ha, ha. I think of it more like climbing into my personal health pod.
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Surreal is a fantastic word! 7/33 today! I am settling in to the routine, even making friends with the ladies who are there at the same time as me everyday
although I never have to sit for more than 5 minutes. I am still warm, pink, and my incisions feel like they did around 3-4 weeks post lumpectomy. NONE of this is due to radiation... (says the frustrating but kinda cute RO) On the up side, my mood has vastly improved from yesterday!
QMC let me know what you find works! I have been thinking about throwing a damp washcloth in a baggie into our work fridge so I can use it when I get back from "tanning"
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Littleblue: you win the surreal award for the day.
Ksusan: perfect card!
Skysquirrel: I still haven't figured out what the commercially-available whatzit is, but a friend elsewhere suggested a home version--to wit, rehydrate some of those moisture crystals that gardeners use in their potted plant containers, and put them in a little ziploc bag (I used sandwich size) and put it in the fridge/freezer to cool off. Tuck into your bra as needed. or as to not startle your co-workers, should that be an issue. Handy because it doesn't drip or leave damp marks on your clothing, and can be reused.
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Hello.
I just had my final chemo today. On September 28 I will have my radiation appointment to get tattoos, etc. I don't have exact dates yet, but believe I will start just after Thanksgiving (Canadian Thanksgiving). I will have 21 treatments with 15 whole breast and six focussed on the area where the tumour was.
It is so nice to have so much information from all of you to help prepare.
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Littleblue and Ksusan you are cracking me up! I am obviously not very creative lol
Welcome little-k!
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Little-K: (brief pause to check date for Canadian Thanksgiving) Welcome to the group; i'll put you down for October 13th then? Idle curiosity: what do Canadians call the short protocol? or is that the only kind Canadian oncologists use? (lucky duckies if they do!)
Skysquirrel: don't worry--we need someone to laugh. (I tend to fall in that category.)
Seven of 18 for me, and a flu shot this morning from my PCP. I predict a very sleepy and queasy weekend for me; I'd noticed the fatigue starting last week, and not terribly surprised: I'd assumed that oncologists tend to downplay symptoms as they tend not to see the need for treating side effects before they reach the clinical stage (unable to get out of bed for 24 hours? honestly!)
Flu shots tend to make me feel slightly under the weather; I get them every year anyway, even those couple of years when the U.S. supply got borked, because my husband's got asthma; our PCP doesn't want HIM getting the flu because he gets horrid bronchitis and occasionally pneumonia, and doesn't want ME getting it because I'll just run straight home and share germs with HIM. I just happened to be in today for a med check as the shipment arrived.
Also pestering my techs with questions: what's that paddle? what's that octagonal cylinder? why has it got a glass plate like the lamprey head? why did you have me hold my breath longer today than yesterday? (Answers: a) that's the X-ray beam and the [some term I didn't quite catch] plate--basically it's the background/backstop for the X-ray b) because today we were piggy-backing images on the radiation zap. We're going to be doing it tomorrow too, so don't plotz.) I did warn them about being on the breast cancer boards, and wanting to answer questions others might have, in addition to my own.
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My RO gave me a good supply of Spand-Gel Hydrogel Sheets. You can keep them in the fridge so when you put it on your breast it totally sucks the heat out while it hydrates. The only problem with them is you have to be laying down to keep them where you want them, not made to wear while moving around. I had 2 sizes, 4x4 & 8x8.
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BT: thank you! I'll ask my RO about these when I see him next Tuesday. By then I'm probably going to want to lie down for a bit anyway! I still like the moisture crystals-in-a-baggie but that can't really be arranged to cover the entire irradiated area, that I've been able to figure out.
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Congratulations and welcome, little-k.
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QMC: just got my rads schedule. Dry run next Wed, then start treatments on 9/17. Hate waiting - just want to get going!
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Horsegirl: list duly updated.So many points in the process at which we're waiting waiting waiting waiting! It's all aggravating, though the nervewracking element varies. I didn't mind my wait, but then mine was due largely to a pre-scheduled trip to see family rather than an intervening cancer treatment.
Feeling OK about the rads process?
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In the 'radiation side effects' category: after my seventh treatment yesterday, I noticed reddening under my irradiated breast--not surprisingly in the pattern of my bra band and seams. It's still firmly in the "annoying" category--faded substantially overnight but still visible--but I'm thinking I should do something now rather than wait until it becomes 'clinically worrisome'.
The question is what? I'm thinking pinning or sewing a layer of soft cloth into the lining of that cup, lapped down over the band and up along the shoulder strap. If I were getting radiation on both sides, I'd do the sports bra or camisole underneath route. If I were a B or smaller, I'd just go braless. But how to comfort one breast while keeping the other firmly in place?
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Queenmomcat,
I'm not sure if the Canadian protocol is the only protocol in Canada. I have been reading a few articles about the shortened protocol, which apparently started in the UK. Same amount of radiation but less side effects. Clinical trials in the U.S. will be completed in 2020, but it seems it is starting to gain more acceptance there.
Yes, I do believe Octeber 13 will be my start date.
Thank you
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