Bras, prosthesis and rads

5kidsMom

Very reluctantly starting rads the end of this month and have lots of fears.  Love to hear from others on this.  I have really fair skin, get a sunburn in about 10 minutes--literally.  I'm looking ahead wondering if I'll end up unable to wear my bra and prosthesis before the end of the rads.  The nurses have told me they plan to start me on skincare by the end of the 1st week due to my fair skin. 

 Is this a valid concern?  Should I look into getting a sports bra or pull out my post surgical cami's to help deal with it? 

 hating that I even have to do rads, and these kinds of worries don't help!

fondak

What ended up working for you?  I'm about to start and I had a masectomy on my right side.  I can't imagine not wearing a bra and the prosthesis as I am a D cup and it would be rather obvious. 

I am concerned because my RO (I'm guessing that's radiation oncologist...I'm sometimes,,,well, most of the time behind on the abbreviations) told me due to the fact it was in my lymph nodes I would be getting a different treatment than my mom received and that I would have open blisters.  I go tomorrow to find out when I start.  I have twins that graduate high school at the end of April.  That is the driving force behind my concern leading me to ask.

bethcw

I am also large chested on my remaining side.  I was working during Rads, and couldn't go braless.  The skin in the middle of my chest area and under my arm broke down pretty badly during my last week of rads.  I am also fair skinned, and didn't really have any problems until the last week.

I wore my bra and prosthesis the whole time.  When my skin started breaking down, I slathered gobs of the Aquaphor that the RO gave me over the bad areas each day and then covered it with a Telfa pad (my RO gave me a supply of those too).  I lightly taped the Telfa pad so it wouldn't move around.  The Telfa pad kept the bra from rubbing my broken skin and also kept the oozing off of my clothes for the most part.  While I was still doing rads, I had to wait until after the treatment each day (which was in the morning) to do this as they didn't want me to put any type of lotion, etc on the area for 2 hours before hand (lotion can magnify the burn).