April 2015 Chemo Crew... Starting in April? Please join us!

AndreaC

Princess - you should not have to lie on your side for rads. I lie on my back throughout the whole procedure.

Re a "cradle" - no such thing at our cancer clinic, they just put a pad under your butt and you have a foam thing under your knees, and arms up on armrests. And my legs are not strapped down. Different centres use different techniques, I suppose.

Kbeee...bet you can't wait for deportation! I had a PICC rather than a port and it was such a relief to have it out!

6/28 rad treatment today - so far so good!

Andre

Stephmoen

wow Ksusan hair looks great

slv58

I get my port out on sept 30 and have to admit I'm nervous. Apparently they only freeze the area? Can anyone reassure me, I'm a big suck with "procedures" although I was really good for my second biopsy. I think it's the unknown.

gkodad

Prirncess, you'll lie on your back (or on your stomach, depending on the direction they decide to go...usually your back). I don't think you will be lying on your side.

KBee...they did my run-though the same day they made the cradle and did all the alignments, etc, and then they started today. Everything was exactly the same as the run through, except the machine makes more noise when you are getting the actual treatment. And it was a lot faster, because they didn't have to do all the markings and alignments. I got tattoos during the run through.

I also lie down with my upper body in the cradle and holding handles. I was surprised how sore my arms were after just 15 minutes or so over my head. I'm sure they will get used to it pretty fast.

ksusan

This is my supine set-up: The linear accelerator (looks like a Kitchen Aid mixer) and a table that slides into place. Foam cradle made during my sim. Handles to grasp by my head. The apparatus rotates. There are guide laser lines on the ceiling. For boosts, an additional plate is added to the top part, and it holds a cone with a sort of cut-out or stencil of the boost radiation field.

slv58

That looks a lot more comfortable  than I had!

KBeee

I don't have a nice foam piece by my butt; it's metal...which is not comfortable on my skinny, bony butt! They do have warm blankets though which make me happy. My position is the same. I think ost places start the day after the sim. I am not sure why they don't here. Everyone that's been through it here says the same thing! Oh well, what's one more trip in to my home away from home...

It does look like a kitchen aid. As long as big metal mixing blades don't come down at me, I'm ok with that.

ksusan

My butt's actually on an uncomfortable cross-bar of some sort, but I was tipped off by someone who got radiation here that I should get good knee elevation for the sim so my treatments would be more comfortable. Hoping tomorrow's the last I ever see of the underside of that machine!

SueH58

Ksusan - how are you doing with fatigue? My daughter is getting married Oct 3, and I don't want to be worn out for the wedding. So I'm thinking of starting rads 2 weeks before, hearing that after that SE's begin to appear...

ksusan

Sue, I did last chemo, ~4 or 5 weeks off, then radiation. I was actually more tired earlier in radiation, but I don't think that's typical. I did feel physically just fine (other than tired) until a couple of days before my boosts stated (so around the 26th of 28 regular treatments, which were followed by the 5 boosts I finish tomorrow).

SueH58

Thx, Susan. Congrats on finishing!!! Since you were node negative, did you only have two areas blasted and not the third outer area? If so, did you still have armpit issues?

ksusan

I was node positive on the right. I had 3 areas radiated, and the lower half of my armpit is a little red with slightly coarsened skin. Nothing much.

KBeee

Ksusan, Congrats on last rads treatment today!!!

lovlilynne

Tina, as others have said and showed, you lay on your back - although some do lay on stomach - I asked tech about that, and she said that sometimes with large breasts, they cannot get the field when laying on back so they have those women lay on stomach.

I'm on a CT scanner for simulation, so not sure what the actual radiation table is like, I assume just like ksusan's photo.

KB, my RO said rads would start several days to a week after simulation. My understanding is that is so they can review CT and confirm plan. I'm sure that some of these are very standard, so the review goes quicker. RO said that breast rads was simpler (with a breast anyway), then brain or liver, etc., because it's like radiating a finger or other appendage. Anyway, it sounded like your RO already had a plan decided on, so I'm surprised that you're not going strait to rads also. My simulation redo is this Wednesday, but I don't expect to start until next Monday.

Shari, I think you could get an oral sedative if you want for your port removal. I was offered that several times, but I would always remind them that I didn't have one when they put it in. You would have to get a ride home from the procedure. From what I've read here and on the March DB, it sounds like my removal procedure was more entailed than others. My port was put in at Internventional radiology - I was in an operating room where they used an xray machine through the procedure to ensure proper placement. I also had it removed in the same sterile environment - so on an OR table, they tented around my face, etc. I was hooked up to a bp and hr monitor. Others have said they are having the procedure done in the doctor's office, so that might actually be less stressful.

Lynne

ksusan

I had my port removed in the surgeon's office. I recommend an anxiolytic the night before and morning of the procedure if your surgeon okays it. While both of my biopsies were quite painful, the port removal was not painful, and I recovered quickly.

littleblueflowers

Sooo- had a Derm appointment right after my Rad appointment today. Some interesting stuff: First, she said chemo would take care of any skin cancers I had going, so that's good. But.....women who have had breast cancer have a 50% chance of developing melanoma, so I'm doing ever 6 month skin checks indefinitely. Also, no moldy spots at this time!!! Yay!!!!! She also said skin cancer loooooves to show up in scars, so pay special attention to them- ugh. And now we know.

And now I have a Gyno appointment next Wednesday to freak out about. I sure wish there were other options than Planned Parenthood around here. Not that they aren't awesome, and I'm sure they see a ton of cancers. What's annoying, is there is only one preferred provider for my insurance around here, and he's booked out 6 months. And, I have no interest in seeing a male gyno. The thought makes my skin crawl. So, Planned Parenthood it is! fingers crossed i have no reproductive cancers.

Actually kind of whiped out today after Rads- I think its psychosomatic though. That and stress.

Rpayton

KSusan CONGRATS fine with rads! Just got done with my mapping appt and my setup looks pretty much the same as yours.

Andrea so glad headaches are gone and rads doing well so you can enjoy being grandma!

Littleblue bummer news about the high increase of melanoma for us.

Happy Tuesaday All!

ksusan

DONE. Woo!

Jen, 50%? Nobody has quoted me a percent, but I'm surprised they didn't if that's accurate. I was just told by MO and RO, "Use a good sunblock."

littleblueflowers

Ksusan, that's what my Derm said. 50%. So, there's that...For some reason that stat. seems less scary than the 12% chance I have of dying from breast cancer....

ksusan

50% occurrence (chance), or 50% higher risk? Here's why I ask (emphasis mine):

http://www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-information/...

Breast Cancer and Melanoma: How They Are Linked

Since breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed noncutaneous (non-skin) cancer among women in the United States,¹ it is not surprising that many individuals with breast cancer will develop melanoma (the deadliest form of skin cancer) and vice versa. However, recent studies exploring how often individual patients develop both cancers suggest that it has to do with more than just coincidence: A recent study by Murphy, et al, for example, found that patients with either breast cancer or melanoma were almost four times more likely to develop the other malignancy than probability would lead researchers to expect.² Specific causes linking the diseases may be in play, and genetic or environmental factors may also contribute. On the other hand, the association may at least partly result from more rigorous detection – in other words, a detection bias. This occurs when health care providers who carefully monitor cancer patients detect a second cancer that might otherwise have been missed.

Whatever clues we can gather about an association between breast cancer and melanoma may help lead to patient interventions that could reduce the risk of a second cancer. Just what do we know so far about the links between these two cancers?

Population-Based Studies

Population-based data provide the most statistically significant estimates of cancer incidence.³ When exploring the frequency of two primary cancers occurring together, epidemiologic studies often focus on a population-based registry of one cancer, then evaluate data for the development of the second. The findings are presented as a standardized incidence ratio (SIR), a ratio of observed to expected number of cases.

Melanoma After Breast Cancer

Recent registry-based studies offer SIRs ranging from 1.16 to 2.74 for melanoma development after breast cancer, meaning that 1.16 to 2.74 times the number of expected melanoma cases occurred after a breast cancer occurred.^4-6 (The range may reflect differences in methodology or variations in the composition of the examined population.) An accurate estimate may be a 29 percent excess risk for melanoma in breast cancer patients, as found in the largest group study of over 500,000 breast cancer patients.⁷ Higher-risk still were breast cancer patients age 50 or younger, who in a study by Goggins, et al, had a 46 percent higher risk of melanoma after breast cancer.⁴

Breast cancer patients who receive external radiation therapy (XRT) also have an especially heightened melanoma risk ^4,6 — Goggins, et al found a 42 percent higher risk of melanoma⁴ — even at non- irradiated sites.⁸

However, patients who undergo XRT for breast cancer may be examined more frequently, reflecting a detection bias that could lead to more melanomas being found....

ksusan

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/19/cancer-su...

Cancer survivors have higher risk of melanoma

...

The risk was most pronounced among survivors of breast cancer, prostate cancer, lymphoma, and leukemia. Women who developed breast cancer before age 45 and recovered, for instance, were 38% more likely than women in the general population to develop melanoma later in life.

ksusan

http://www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-information/...

Melanoma and Breast Cancer: A New Warning

The study corroborates the findings of journals such as Annals of Oncology and Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, which reported that breast cancer patients have between 1.4 and 2.7 times the risk of developing melanoma. And the danger is reciprocal: The International Journal of Cancer noted that female melanoma patients have a 1.4 times greater chance of developing breast cancer.

ksusan

General (US population) risk:

http://www.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/melan...

Melanoma (NYT)

The lifetime risk of getting melanoma is about 2% (1 in 50) for whites, 0.1% (1 in 1,000) for blacks, and 0.5% (1 in 200) for Hispanics.

littleblueflowers

"50% occurrence (chance), or 50% higher risk?" Ksusan, I didn't think to ask. I will next time I see her, which should be sometime next week.

ksusan

It looks to me more like a 4-5% risk (as compared to a 2% general population risk) for Caucasians, but I'm always wary of interpreting stats across studies!

littleblueflowers

Well, I like that a lot better! So 50% higher, not 50%. Although, considering how low my risk for breast cancer was, you will forgive me for feeling like I'm on the wrong end of statistics even so..

ksusan

Word.

Addie29

one taxol left for my ladies. One! My MO gave me the option to skip the 12th taxol treatment but I said "hell now, I'm not a quitter!" Plus it's a mental thing. I need that 12th treatment to make myself feel a little better. After reading all these rads posts I'm thankful that I won't be needing radiation.

ksusan

Yeah!

littleblueflowers

Yeah Addie!!!!!!!!!! Rock it, lady! And yes, lucky you you get to keep your hide pristine.