November 2020 Radiation Group

Hi! I have my simulation this coming Friday, 11/6. I'm not overly prepared for this part of treatment. It's honestly scared me, so I tried to stay away from poking around too much on this topic. But it's coming whether I want it to or not. I will have 30 sessions and I'm hoping to finish before the New Year. I'm assuming I won't start until the week of 11/16. I'm still having some discomfort from my surgery, mostly in my armpit. I'm numb from the shoulder to the elbow on the underside and back of my arm. It feels kind of like a bad sunburn...I'm told I'll only know with time if it's permanent. I don't have any swelling and my arm looks fine. It does hurt to keep it raised above my head though, so not sure what position I'll be in for the treatments.

Good luck to everyone!!

Hi ladies,

I also start radiation this week. Everyone tells me that after making it through chemo and surgery, I shouldn’t worry about radiation. But, I think it’s only natural that you you do. I’m a little nervous about starting. Hoping we can connect during this. Thanks for starting this thread.

Kristen

hi all!

had my simulation today, it was pretty easy. I did get sharpie markings, covered with tape to help maintain. I will go for 20 treatments starting November 10. I have bought a bunch of different creams and some loose t shirts. I guess we shall see how this goes..

Hello Ladies...I did my simulation today and it went fine. I was just cleared 10/28 by my plastic to return to normal activities so I worked hard the last several days to get enough range of motion to have my arms up. I was able to get into see a pt lymphadema specialist who worked with me on Friday with some massage and gave me exercises. Now I'm just waiting on a date to start. I'm not looking forward to this but I'm ready to get it done. I'll have 5 weeks and the goal is to finish before Christmas. I did well through chemo and I'm finally feeling better after surgery...I'm just getting tired of all the treatment. Let's get each other through this next phase

I hear you Ladyc2020. This is the part of treatment that is causing me the most anxiety. When choosing my surgery I nearly opted for a mastectomy instead of a lumpectomy because I didn't want the radiation. I did a virtual visit with the radiation oncologist before making my surgical decision. I was worried about the damage to the heart and lungs most. The RO explained all they do to keep it away, but did tell me there's a possibility of a very small part of the lung being affected. This would be something they watch for. I'm still not 100% comfortable with everything, but I guess I'm ready for this? I also choose to do the traditional 6-week treatment, not the 4-week hypofractionated. We talked about both options and she mentioned they'd been doing the hypo on older women for about 10 years, but now it's used on younger women as well. The traditional has been used for 25+ years, or something like that. I guess for me, since I'm only 40, I wanted to go with the option that has the most data behind it on potential long term effects out 25+ years, rather than only having 10 years of data. I'm planning to be here in 25+ years, so I figured what's 2 more weeks of treatment matter. My understanding is it's the same amount of radiation no matter if you do it 4 or 6 weeks, just less strength (probably the wrong term) each time if you spread it over more days (please correct me if I'm wrong on this). Regardless, I'm nervous...I hope everything goes smoothly for all of us these next several weeks no matter what version of radiation we selected to endure.

Good Evening - My left breast excisional biospy was in July, and after having ruled out right breast cancer/and sentinel lymph node involvement (September surgery), and then insisting on - and finally getting my Oncotype result of 11 today; I'll call to schedule my 33 radiation treatments tomorrow.
As others have said, and due to some of my outside research and/or the posts on these boards .. I have been very alarmed regarding radiation. To the point I've wanted to seek other opinions on this treatment or forego it altogether. Especially since the radiation treatments will be on the left side (heart and lung risks,etc). I truly hope to find here some support, information, insights, and reinforcement for my choice to do radiation.

~ Love and Light ~

I will be starting radiation this month. My doctor mentioned that Uniqlo has a great bra for radiotherapy / radiation however it is not listed that way on their website. Has anyone found this bra or another option that is extremely comfortable during this process? If you have, please let me know details.

NorCal - ask your RO if you can have radiation in the prone position. Basically you lay on your stomach and your boob drops thru an opening in the table. This way they are able to keep the radiation as far away from your heart as possible. I am left side also. They put me on 20 treatment routine, 16 whole breast and 4 boost. I finished whole breast today and start my boosts tomorrow. So my skin is light red, no blisters, slightly itchy, did get some skin cracking in my IMF so have been keeping mepilex foam on it to protect it and prevent skin to skin contact. So far it has been very bearable. My breast is a bit tender on the inside but not terrible, I have been riding my horse all the way through.

Basically there are three things to stay on top of during radiation. 1 - moisturize, moisturize, moisturize. At least 3x a day. 2 - NO skin to skin contact. So either a very good bra that LIFTS (my RO sounds like a drill sargeant LIFT LIFT LIFT), or keep a soft piece of fabric under each breast and in the cleavage to prevent skin to skin contact. If you google "bra liners" on Amazon, they actually make special padding to go in the IMF to prevent skin to skin contact. 3 - Keep the area dry (eg no boob sweat). This is where the corn starch comes in. I have a big body puff that I use to puff it on (I actually use Anti Monkey Butt powder but it is cornstarch with a couple other things in it).

Also stay hydrated, drink lots of water. I totally understand your concerns about rads, I actually wanted to get a BMX just to avoid rads. BS talked me out of it, mostly because of COVID. At this point, I am happy she did. If I had had worse side effects I might not feel that way, but so far it seems like things are working out ok.

You REALLY do not want to forego radiation. It drops the risk of local recurrence from over 30% to low single digits. It is a DRAMATIC reduction in local recurrence. After I read the statistics, I resigned myself to going thru radiation with the best positive attitude I could and just be diligent about the skin care. I want to live. So if my skin gets thicker or less pleasant to touch, oh well. At least I am alive and hopefully will remain cancer free.

Best of wishes to you, and keep coming back and let us know how you are doing.

just finished treatment 2/15. Yesterday they told me the RO had cut me from 20 to 15, he decided to not do the boost. Not sure why I need to ask him that when I see him next.

Both days I have a little bit of stinging type pain my lumpectomy incision immediately after treatment- is that my imagination?

They recommended Egyptian magic cream (or eucerin or Aquafor), of course I had bought a bunch of others, they say avoid petroleum, though and I think mine has it..

So far so good.

6 out of 16 today. Other than a scheduling glitch today, still moving on. It's feeling less scary and more routine.I'm generally in and out so fast I hardly have time to think about it. Getting in from the parking garage, thru Covid checks, and changing room takes longer than the treatment itself.

Whitney923, today I felt a stinging feeling DURING the treatment. I thought it was my imagination. Maybe not.

Kim, I see you are in Nashville, we are neighbors! I am in Franklin. how did your meeting go? Do you know when you start treatment?

Rachel, I felt like you do, I wanted a lot of information and got not much from my doc at first. I would read the thread in this forum about what to do/get/buy before radiation (or something like that- it's super long) but don't spend a lot of money on lotions until you know which your doc recommends (I made that mistake). Read good websites (I read some good hospital ones about what to expect at the simulation and at treatments). I wanted to know what to expect; how it would look/go every day. If you want to know more about the medicine or science, I'd tell your doctor that you want to know all the detail.

kmom i am glad to hear I'm not alone (though sorry you are having the stinging too). It's bothering me right now, actually. Not enough to be an issue but on day 3 it concerns me it will get worse..

hi ladies, I'm curious how many of you are having radiation post mastectomy?

Arabian, I thought that was weird. I assumed the nurse misspoke? Or maybe I misunderstood, honestly I'm not sure. I'm 4 treatments in, starting to be a little pink, slightly itchy and a feeling slightly burned. I've got some nutritional supplements for wound care (otc stuff) that I'm considering but they don't taste great..

ok, so I'm 9 sessions in and the nipple on my treated breast is now way (way!) larger than my other, like when I was breastfeeding. And tender. The breast itself is not noticeably swollen.

Is this a thing for anyone else?

Otherwise, I'm hanging in there. My skin is pink and a bit itchy, it's broken out which I don't know if that's a dermatistis-type rash or if the lotion is breaking me out. I'm tired, unsure if it's radiation related or just life related, though on Wednesday it hit me like a freight train out of nowhere and I was so tired I didn't want to move, so pretty sure that is the radiation.

Hope everyone is doing well.