Fall 2015 Rads
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Yeah, Christine!! How is your skin?
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Yay Christine!
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Congratulations ChristineT!!
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didn't start rads yet so you can bump me lower on the list! I meet with my RO tomorrow morning to talk about our plan!
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Mazel tov, Christine!
I decided to use Aquaphor only immediately after treatment, as it’s goopy & greasy but the little sample tube fits in my purse. At night I alternate between 100% aloe gel and calendula cream. Noticing some dandruffy stuff in my sleep bras in the morning before I toss them into the hamper, but I see it in the left cup as well--must be normal dead-skin-cell sloughing. Right breast seroma still huge but seems a bit smaller, since my cleavage is no longer skewed to the left and the center of the bra sits flat against my chest, as it should. I do sometimes feel as if I’m wearing a shoulder holster, though. (Not literally--I don’t own or carry a gun; but when I’ve been in shows I'd stash the transmitter for my wireless head mic in a little travel neck wallet I sling over my shoulder beneath my blouse or jacket and tuck below my armpit; sorta feels like that. Too uncomfortable to go braless).
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Woot, Christine!!0
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I start rads on November 25th. I met with the RO today and she was just lovely. The Radiation Oncology center purchased a new piece of equipment that allows women with lymph node involvement to receive rads in the prone position, which thrilled me as my tumor was in my left breast and in the inner lower quadrant. She asked if I would agree to be the first patient at Mayo to use the new equipment. She told me that there was a lower incidence of skin reactions in women receiving radiation in the prone position and that she recommends nothing but pure aloe for my skin. They will watch me carefully, as my skin is basically milk white. I will receive 33 treatments with no boosts, so I am scheduled out until the 13th of January. I was hoping to have this all finished before the end of the year, but I guess that's not possible. I think the holidays will be very quiet and low key this year. I am just now beginning to feel like myself so I am not looking forward to being fatigued again, but the RO did say that the fatigue would probably not start until I was 3 to 4 weeks into my treatment. I meet with her once a week and meet with the nurse after every treatment. Everyone on the team today for my sim was just wonderful and they went out of their way to make sure I was comfortable and that my fears were addressed. I was also asked to enroll in a study that looks for a genetic component to radiation toxicity. It was very interesting and the questions they asked made me giggle a bit...they even asked my bra cup size!
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Creative : I don't know if you exercise or not but I have been working out almost daily and so far, I have yet to have any fatigue. I am on 23 of 28 today.
I asked my RO today if I could go Friday and Sunday and be done Monday and she said don't do it. She is even talking about lopping off a couple of treatments. At this point, I am hoping not to have to do that.
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Creativevintage, that is great you get to be in the prone position.
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YAY Christine!
Steflove: I'll bump you down on the list a bit?
Creativevintage: shall I add you to the list? in any case, would you feel comfortable coming back to report on how the study goes?
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For anyone (who may be) having radiation starting in the next few weeks: a shout out to the Winter 2015/16 thread. As far as I'm concerned, you're welcome to participate in this thread as well! It certainly helped me to chat with women (and a few men) who'd undergone fadiation treatment just before me.
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Thank you for adding me to list. I would be very happy to report on my progress. My Ro did tell me that they will not use this new equipment on any other patients until I have finished and they are satisfied with the outcome. I was thrilled because I really wanted my rads prone. I guess it helps that I also work there, so they were comfortable asking me to be the tester! The study is ongoing for seven years and I will not know the outcome, so I am afraid I won't have anything to report.
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Trvler
My skin is lightly pink on my breast and feels dry. They recommend Glaxal base here to use on skin. Under my armpit it is quite red it bubbled last week and then popped. I've been cleaning the armpit with saline and then creaming it up. The rad techs are surprised my breast looks so good I gotoff easy!
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Hello All! If all goes according to schedule, I should be starting radiation on 11/30 for 6 weeks. I go to get tattooed on 11/19 but right now I can't get my right hand over my head which my RO told me would be a problem. I am almost there (at 85%) but if not will have to move my appointment to Monday and hoping that my start date won't change.
I had my bilateral mastectomy done on 10/27 and the suture tape has not fallen off yet. Can anyone shed some light on any of the SE I will experience because my RO says I will have redness but then it goes away but that's not what some of my friends who have gone through it have said.
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Finished #22 of 30. My skin is a little pink and dry in one spot, but so far it's holding up just fine. For those of you just tuning in to this thread --welcome-- my MO said one of the most important things is to make sure there is no sink-to-skin contact. If your breast touches your chest or your other breast (like if you wear a sports bra) make sure you put a rolled up piece of SOFT t-shirt material between the skin. I've been using Miaderm. It's expensive, but so far has been working for me. The others say the candula or whatever work for them. I also walk 4 miles a day, and I have experienced no fatigue yet. My doc says since I've had no side effects so far, if I get any at all, this will be the week I notice them. Stay tuned.
I was mapped today for the boosts. Interesting. I asked if the boosts will fry the skin, and the RO said that the boosts are the most gentle. Sometimes toward the end of radiation if the skin breaks down they will do the boosts and then go back to finish the rads so the skin has time to heal. Oh, and I also learned that the week after rads is where you see the cumulative effect of the radiation, and then you get better!
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12 down, 4 to go: 3/4 of the way there! Although my armpit feels “crowded," it's not the SNB scar but rather Teenage Mutant Ninja Tit-tle being swollen due to its lateral third being essentially seroma surrounded by fat. But it might be shrinking a tad because my cleavage today was back to being perfectly centered. Even so, I'm going to schedule a lymphedema-therapist consult just to make sure that isn't a harbinger of LE. I am getting some tingling & pins & needles, but in both arms & hands. (I've had cervical-spine arthritis since I was 31). Still see veins & wrinkles in R hand and can make a fist and touch my thumb to the base of my pinky, but the R fingers don't feel as flexible as the L ones. Not surprising, though--the L is what I use to make chords and play notes on the fretboards of my stringed instruments, as I've done since I started playing guitar at 15. The R fingers don't stretch when picking--in fact they spend quite a bit of time holding a pick or curved as I fingerpick the strings.
The boosts at the end of conventional whole-breast irradiation are very much like the 16 partial-breast external rad. treatments I am having, and the side effects thus far are quite minimal. (The breast seroma was probably percolating before I started radiation--maybe the rads enlarged it but it’s equally likely it’s been a combination of time & gravity). What I’d perceived as redness is really below the skin surface--it’s actually starting to tan a little . Because I’m so pale, it showed up earlier than in most patients.
Talked to my FP today--brought him up to speed on my progress. He says that before he takes a look at the little tan splotch (about the size of a baby aspirin) on my opposite breast I should run it by my RO himself, not just the RO's nurse. He also suggested that since I hadn't noticed it before, perhaps neither had my mammographer! He also says I should think long and hard before I take any bone-strengthening medicines, due to the severe fevers & aches from the injected/infused biologics and the horizontal femur fractures and massive esophagitis from the bisphosphonates (he's seen jaw necrosis and cancers in patients who've taken them). At the AAFP convention last summer, he learned of research that suggests that osteopenia doesn't necessarily progress to osteoporosis. I will discuss that with my MO in Feb. once I've had a month of Femara. My FP did say the SE's of AIs (all this alphabet soup!) can include hyperlipidemia and pre-diabetic glucose levels, but with an ER+ cancer they're pretty much my only option after menopause, and I'd need them only 5 years. I'll put up with having my own “personal perennial summer," as he describes the hot flashes, if it means I get to live long enough to die of old age.
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Congratulations, Christine!
Gotta thank you guys. I've had two sessions now and have been nauseous after both, though less today than yesterday. Mentioned it tonight and was able to keep a straight face when the techs immediately said solemnly, "It's not radiation." They thought maybe it was the chemo? Since I'm about 9 weeks PFC, I don't think so!
For what it's worth, I would agree with those of you who said it's psychologically harder than either chemo or surgery. Something about being splayed out half naked, alone in the room with those loud machines, freezing cold--and that's not to mention the anticipation of the later stages of treatment. Tomorrow I'm going to bring a speaker for the iPad so I can play my music--I think Bach Suite for Unaccompanied Cello--and drown out some of the noise. The techs say that's fine. And I'm doing a version of meditation: trying to remember, day by day, what we did on a vacation we took several years ago. But it's harder than I thought it would be. Maybe, too, the fact that I've been in treatment since May. It has been going well (knock wood), but it has been a long several months. Well, 2 down, 23 to go.
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Congrats Ltam and Bluedog!!
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Marijen--I don't think it matters what time of aloe gel you use as long as it is 100% pure aloe. That is what my RO told me when I told him I was considering using it. A client of mine gave me a large aloe plant, so I have been using the gel right from the leaves and haven't bought any bottled aloe. Maybe someone on this thread knows more about the bottled type and can chime in. Good luck!
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Finished 10 of 33 today. So far so good. Breast is swollen and areola is stretched. Lumpectomy scar is sensitive and itchy. I see RO tomorrow. After each session I immediately slather up with aloe. At night it's Aquophor and a product called NuSkin I got from a coworker. I'm African American and nurse told me darker skinned patients tend to burn so I'm worried. I've never had a sunburn so I'm not really sure what to expect but reading here has helped. Thanks everyone for sharing
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I'm a little past the midpoint of my course of treatment (14 left). Have been very fortunate so far—doc seems surprised that I have had no skin disturbance or discomfort . I bought an aloe plant and have used the aloe every day before I go for treatment. Last week they gave me a tube of Aquaphor which I'm to use at bedtime. So I guess I'm fortunate, tho' not expecting to escape completely unscathed.
I missed an early November appt. with my medical oncologist (chemo brain I guess—must not have written it into my appt. book) who I won't see till next week. My main complaint has to do with my post chemo condition—still have little taste ability, and despite a course and then doubling of gabapentin my neuropathy in fingers and toes continues. The tastebud thing has enabled me to lose another 5 lbs.—that's a total of 25 lbs. well gone. Don't know whether I actually want the taste problem resolved or not, 'cause I could easily use to lose another 20! But it does make it hard for my husband as I have very little enthusiasm for planning or cooking dinner.
So, no complaints yet about rads.
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I have a special prayer request given to me by a friend who knows a lady in England (Jackie is her name) that has an aggressive type of thyroid cancer. She was hoping to find a support team like we have here, but I don't know of any such forums for her type of cancer, although I am going to google it later. She is in need of prayer and comfort that only God can provide, so I am hoping that some of you ladies would consider saying a prayer for her. She wants as many prayers as she can get! Thank you.
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hi ladies
As I lurk in this group, anticipating rads in February, i have a Question for all of you.
Are any of you going through rads with a mastectomy? I am curious and because I have yet to regain feeling in a good portion of my former breas area, wondering how the burning will be - if I will feel anything?
Thanks.
Kim
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ElishebaJoy, I asked about the Aloe in a bottle because I did once buy the 100% kind and it didn't help. As soon as I can I'm going out to look for an aloe plant.
Thanks!
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ElishebaJoy, I will put your friend Jackie in my Mi Sheberach list tonight.
Surprisedat65, my RO team told me specifically NOT to put anything on my breast before going to treatment--I lube up after the treatment and at bedtime, and must shower it off in the morning. I’m allowed to use regular antiperspirant, but only because my armpit isn’t being irradiated (and I apply only a single swipe high up, at that).
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Thank you ChiSandy, for the response to my friend's prayer request. I meant to post it on a different thread, but will take it from anyone here as well!
Marijen--I hope the aloe plant works for you (and for me). I am only on #16 today so we will see if it continues to do well. My RO also gave me the Aquaphor but I haven't used it yet, and hope I won't have to.
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Kimmer, I'm going through rads with a bmx. Still early days so I don't know how it will feel once it starts burning. I'm also still numb after surgery. Will report back.
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Kimmer: That's a great question actually. I had a BMS with DIEP reconstruction. But I am having large area radiated….5 fields in all. The area I am experiencing the most discomfort is the top left of my breast and my adjacent chest, which is itching and has what look like hives. My armpit gets progressively more painful as I go. I have 24 of 28 today. So far, no broken skin yet. I would guess if the itching or the pain was lower on the breast, I wouldn't feel much of it. Too bad it didn't happen that way.
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Kimmer, I had a umx with TE. Here's photos of me after 20! of 33. I have a large radiation field and my axilla seems to be the worst. I got radiation rash on my chest as well. So far no skin breaks.
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