Bracytherapy experience?

christina1961

Hi, has anyone had bracytherapy following lumpectomy?  Talked with my oncologist about the possibility yesterday.  I do have one node that was possibly cancerous (I'm doing neoadjuvant chemo) but it has shrunken to .5 mm at this point from 1 cm.  It didn't show up on the MRI or ultrasound but was swollen approx 2-3 weeks later when I got to the oncologist for my first physical exam.

BeckySharp

I had mammosite radiation in February.   I think it is also called bracytherapy. It is twice a day for five days.If interested PM me and I will tell you about it.

ritaz

I had a lumpectomy in December 09, Mammosite radiation Jan 10.  In my case, the surgeon inserted a "dummy" balloon until the pathology came back with clear margins.  Then, I went to her office (which was about 1 1/2 weeks after the surgery) and she gave me a local, removed the dummy and inserted the real balloon.  Then I went to see the radiologist, they put me in a CT tube and what seemed like eveyone in the building inspected me (lol) and the films and the head radiologist added some saline to remove whatever air bubbles were surrounding the balloon.  Every time I went, I would get the CT scan first and then the procedure next.  The balloon has a long tube attached to it that goes from the lumpectomy site to outside your body - protrudes about 6 inches.  They insert a probe thru this tube using a special radiation machine that was rolled over to me and that is how the radiation is applied. There was always at least 2 people in the room with me, unlike whole breast radiation (like I'm having now for the other breast) while the radiation is being administered.  Each actual radiation session took about 5 minutes from insertion to removal. Afterwards, a nurse would come over, dress the site of the insertion, wrap it in a soft pad and it would be pressed against my body so I could wear a bra and keep it in place. Like Becky said, it's twice a day for 5 days in a row. As for body reaction, the first couple of days I didn't feel any reaction at all, by Wednesday thou, I could feel a bit of heat, by Friday I felt like someone had put a warm coal inside my breast. That feeling subsided by the end of the next week...At the end of the 10 sessions, they deflated the balloon and removed it.  Which I was nervous as anything for that to happen - I was shaking like my dog does at the vet!  Turns out it felt like someone ripped a bandaid off real fast - that quick and relatively painless.  I was on antibiotics the whole time - from the surgery until it was removed so I had no problems with infection.  I wasn't allowed to shower - only bathe - because you have to keep that site completely dry. As for that site now, I almost have a hard time finding it, it healed so well.  It took longer for the lymph removal site to disappear than that area...One caveat is I hope you have good insurance.  I couldn't believe that when I got the bills that each session cost $3000.00 - so $30,000 for one week!!!  Holy smoke!  One good thing is that if the cancer were to come back in that breast, God Forbid!,  you can still have whole breast radiation on that same breast.  I hope this helps you or anyone else that may be considering this type of partial breast radiation.