May 2012 radiation

mckenna

had one of my edible arrangement choc covered strawberries for an afternoon snack today it was delicious!!

 congrats dizzy!!!  you are on the down hill now. getting the stickers off felt so good, i was still in the dressing area and peeled those off right away.  luckily the only one that was really in the red zone was already practiclly off because of all the aquaphor so it did not take any skin with it.

 fl glad your skin is mostly looking good, hope the 3 spots heal quickly.

never heard back from the ro nurse, i said don't have to call me back if i am already doing what i can, so i guess she had no further ideas.  i think i am going to take a pain pill when i get home.  i have to sit for 3 hours at the roller rink tonight (feels like i am back in the 80's) my kids take lessons for an hour and then have 2 hours of free skate.  i need to down load my new book club book so i can put a dent in that.

bl, i bet you could make your own fruit arrangement.  even if you just did fruit kaboobs (haha)

BLinthedesert

Thats funny, mckenna, I told my nurse the same thing - and they haven't called me back either!  I guess they have run out of ideas for us.  

Fruit kaboobs, nice!  I think the radiation rash makes us pretty darn silly! 

Goodie

mckenna - can you take tylenol or something?  Maybe a glass of wine after the rink? 

So, it sounds like rads are the "gift" that keeps on giving - blisters, peeling, itching, pain!  Lovely!

I think I'm going to make mac & cheese for my rads office on my 2nd to last day.  My last day I have to drive 3 hours to my appoinment and then three hours back as I will be out of town.  Or I may just make cookies and bring them on my actual last day.  I've only seen two people finish so far (yesterday as a matter of fact) and it didn't look like either one did anything. 

mckenna

i have been taking advil.  the RO nurse covering just called back and first she said the skin should not get worse since treatment was over then i said, i thought it could get worse for 2 more weeks???  then she said, well yeah, i guess.  what??? she said i could come in tomorrow or the next day but i said i would wait and if it got much worse i would call to come in on friday.  my blisters are about the size of the tip of a pinkie finger she was glad to hear that and not the size of a quarter or more. 

bl, just think i am that corny with out a pain pill

i rarely saw anyone at my rad appointments so not sure if anyone else did anything, i think we are just a thoughtful group

Neeners815

Dizzy - congrats to you!!! You must be so excited!

McKenna - pardon my french, but wth?!  It's ok to have a blister as long as it's just the size of a fingertip?  OH LORDY *hides this post from righty*.  Yikes.

As far as doing something for the techs... Today I had a new one and she barely said anything to me.  I tried joking around with her, but that fell flat.  Then when she was positioning me and marking me up (sigh) she didn't say a single thing to me except "don't move" when I *swallowed*.  I guess I should be happy she didn't say it when I took a breath!  So we'll see if she gets better, but if not I'm not really all that tempted to do anything at the end of this for them.  I did send my breast center cookies when I was done there, though - those ladies hugged me and were really caring and loving. 

BLinthedesert

My RO's office just called, they said I could either 1) skip the next two days (and add on next week) so that it "might" calm down by this weekend, or 2) I can come by on Friday before leaving town and they will cover it with some goop and then put a dressing on it -- would look lovely with a dress I am sure -- and, if I choose goop then I can't shower - nice.

Lovely alternatives.  I am going to wait and see how it goes tonight to decide, but I am really looking forward to Monday being my last day (and why don't I believe that taking the next two days off really "heal" me?  -- mckenna, are you healed?  )

Neeners -- righty is so lucky that you look out for her. 

Goodie

Neeners - my infusion nurses were awesome!!!!!!!!!!!  I brought them a few things over my 4 months going there.  I bought them a motion detection candy machine for Valentine's Day and I even brought them a big bag of M&Ms last week when I saw my MO for a check up to fill it up.  I guess the rad techs don't want to get too personal since you barely see them for 5 minutes and they have to keep their schedule going.

Yes, we are a nice bunch!    I will do something; I just don't know what yet. 

mckenna

Bl not good options . If you go for the goop find a great clips they will wash your hair for 3-4 dollars the day after my lumpectomy I went to one because I couldn't shower but iwanted my hair washed.



Well off to the rink

Dizzy215

BL, neither option sounds good.  I would be inclined just to continue as planned.  The skin reactions can get worse even after rads has finished, so it's unlikely that your rash will improve over the next 2 days. But of course, do what you feel is best for you.

BLinthedesert

Dizzy -- I agree, I don't believe for a second that all will be well by Saturday ... 

mckenna -- great idea on the great clips!  that is a wonderful option, if I end up going with the goop (sounds like a hit record doesn't it?) 

Neeners815

BL - well, what crappy options for a bummer of a situation.  Sorry about that.  I have no idea what I'd choose.  

BLinthedesert

I forgot to tell you all something.  Today they taped a wire to my chest to "measure radiation dosing".  Well, heavens to Betsy -- I only have 3 more left, don't you think that would have been good information to know ... well ... sometime before the END of treatment???  

Infobabe

 BLinthedesert

Did they use a geiger counter? 

BLinthedesert

ha ha ... I don't think so - it was a long wire that they taped to the side of my breast when I got zapped from the left and then moved it to under my arm when they zapped me from the right.  It was weird (and I did not like when they taped right in the middle of my rash!).

mckenna

Bl interesting and with 3 treatments left seems very efficient however someone would have been slapped if they tried putting tape anywhere near my rash!



Thinking of you today and hoping you don't have to delay rads and that you can still enjoy the wedding with goop boob



Dizzy we are getting closer to your end day too.



Hope the next 2 zaps go quickly for all and you enjoy your two days off

jittersmom

I finished last week but I have random pain at the boost site, like where my lumpectomy scar is...I still am putting cream on my skin is so dry and peeling.

I hope everyone has a good weekend with 2 days off

sbelizabeth

Good morning!  Sorry I've been out for a bit.  #23 for me today, which is 63% of the way to being finished!

I'm taking all the makings for guacamole to work with me this morning and making a treat for the rad techs before I arrive.  I see a lot of cookies and boxes of See's candy there, maybe they're ready for the appetizer this time. 

My skin is holding up well.  It's bright pink but just looks like I spent too long in the sun with baby oil for protection.  No blisters, rash, or itching.  

Have a great day, everyone! 

mckenna

good to see you sb, glad the skin seems to be holding up!63% done. way to go.

jitters, sorry about the pain

one more day in the week.

pattycal5

Wow, I wish I had found this thread 6 weeks ago!!  I will finish my 33 rads next Thursday on June 28th, only 5 more boosters to go, woo hoo!  I was just on here checking to see how people are dealing with the fatigue (I didn't have chemo).  It has just hit me the last couple of days, and I'm staying home from work now.  

Goodie

Welcome Patty!  The fatigue kind of hit me this past week.  Monday I took a 3 hour nap after my 8 a.m. treatment.  I did have chemo and this fatigue is a lot different.  I just try to take it easy when I can.  It comes along suddenly though.  I find if I do too much then I "pay" for it later. 

etherize

Boy, you all are a lot nicer than I am.  Cookies, appetizers, brownies, candy -- sheesh, my rad therapists were lucky to get a backward glance from me.  

mckenna and BL, I'm really sorry to hear you guys are in so much discomfort and pain.  It sounds utterly (udderly?) miserable.  And YES it can continue after rads are over!  My RO told me that.  I've been lucky.  My "tan" is peeling but the only really sensitive/sort spot is the nipple.

Welcome, pattycal5, only 5 more to go!  I definitely have fatigue ... started during chemo of course and now it's slamming me. 

BL, I loved reading your comment "heavens to Betsy" -- that's a phrase you don't hear often these days.  My mother used to say it a lot, so it brought back good memories. :-) 

schatzi14

etherize...I agree about the rad techs...they hardly uttered a word except to say "don't move".

I know it must be a boring job for them but it isn't easy for the patients either. There were one or two older ones that were personable.

Dizzy215

Pattycal5, I too am having 33 treatments, including 7 boosts, which start today, so i will be done June 29.  No fatigue really, only a couple of afternoons where I've needed 40 winks and those were on days where I had done particularly hard workouts.    

Jan24

Last night I felt itching/burning small bumps, I think I might have a rash developing 9 days after last treatment. 

mckenna

JAN,  so sorry.  i hope it will leave quick since you are so close to the 2 weeks post rads

schatz & eth, you have ever right to walk out and never look back and if i had the other rad tech team i would have done the same.  they were not personal at all.

 goodie, glad the fatigue has not been too bad.  it got bad for me a couple of days but most of that was related to over doig it.  i still feel a little tired but nothing that is not managable

 patty, welcome.  wish you would have found us earlier too, i think we have all been support to each other. i added you to our list! 

Jan24

www.picasaweb.google.com/114918595315401195894

M&Ms

BLinthedesert

Oh Jan - those are awesome!!  I really really really (like really) wanted to put a picture of "lefty" on mine, but I refrained.  Mine say - 1) thank you, 2) best zappers, and 3) another rad grad

So, I have decided to go with 'goop'.  I figure if it is a real pain I will take it off before the wedding (or shower and it will come off on its own).  

Remember the woman that we bought an orchid for last week?  Well, today she dropped off a sweet card and a beautiful handmade key ring for "us" (I think her son had brought it home from Iraq)!!  Wow!  

Another funny for you all.  One of the other women, from the waiting area, is quite a talker.  She is very funny though.  She is about 65 or so, a very young 65.  She was asking me about my skin, what lotions I am using, etc. And then she leans over and says, "do notice your boob is really hot??"   I said, "most definitely".  So, then she says, "I told my husband to feel them the other night, and he said, 'we don't really have time for this right now' ..." ha ha ha ha ...  

BLinthedesert

oh Etherize, I love that expression.  We say it around the house all the time.  Partly we do it because it is part of our Southern repetoire (we "collected" them when we live in Nashville); we also use that experession because it is from one of our favorite movies, The Man Who Wasn't There ... it always makes us giggle because Billy Bob Thorton says, "Heaven's to Betsy Birdy" in the movie -- and, as you know, we are silly at my house.  

mckenna

Bl, love the boob story!!!  glad you decided to go with the goop. lefty on the m&m's would have been awsome

that was so sweet of the orchid lady to bring us a card and keyring.

jan, i love your m&m's now i need to find an occasion to have these made!

sbelizabeth

Love, love, love the boob story!

Yesterday I arrived at radiation feeling a little jumbled...an acquaintance had struck up a conversation earlier in the day that included, "Wow, you're so strong, if I had what you had I think I'd crawl under the covers and never come out, but you have a good prognosis...don't you?  Is your prognosis good?" 

Anyway, my rad tech seemed to sense it and he pulled the story out of me.  He said, "And how did you handle that?"  I could have fallen into his arms and just bawled, because throughout this whole breast cancer thing, so often I feel like just a diseased chest, not a feeling, thinking woman.  I was immensely grateful for the compassion.