Is Bad Achiness Normal During Radiation?

macdebbie

I just finished Day 12 today - woo hoo! AND was told that I will NOT need the boost - double woo hoo! So I will be done the Fri after Thanksgiving. I would have finished Wed but the insurance snafu on the clinic's end put me a day behind. At least I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. I will be DONE on Friday!

I've done relatively well, other than a rash on the bottom half of my breast, but fingers crossed it is not painful or itchy yet, although the RO told me that may happen.

I knew to potentially expect skin changes, but I was unprepared for this achiness. Pains in my sides woke me up @1am this morning - it felt like a pulled muscle. I took a Tylenol and felt fine, then after rads I felt the achiness again.

Is this normal? I asked the nurse today and he said that's likely from the radiation. I drink a ton of water and walk every day. Is there anything else I can do to alleviate these aches other than continue that and the Tylenol?

How long will they last? This so far is the worst side effect so far. I definitely think it's from the rads and I am not sick with anything or COVID, as that would be pretty impossible since I don't go anywhere except to radiation, not even grocery shopping.

I wear a double mask to radiation appts (one being an N95, the other a surgical mask). Everyone in the waiting room is also wearing a mask and I'm not there more than 5-10 min before they call me in. I haven't had any contact with another human being except my husband and at my doctor appts, the last one which was over a month ago.

I think the nurse is right and it's just the rads aggravating my old arthritic spine, but it hurts. I did read in Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book that as the body tries to repair the damage done by the radiation it releases proteins throughout the body and can make you feel yucky.

MountainMia

Remember that as you are receiving the treatment, you're stretching your arm unnaturally above your head. If at the same time, your back isn't well relaxed (which is hard to do!) you've got muscle tension for a fairly long time. Achiness is pretty normal, I think.

IF YOU HAVE ANY REASON to think it even COULD BE COVID, get TESTED NOW! Don't expose the rads techs to you for a minute if it's even possible. It's much more important that you know for sure, than just guess and then wish you hadn't. If you have a patient portal or can leave a message in the rads clinic, you can delay Monday's treatment until you have a rapid test done.

Spookiesmom

Agree it’s probably the position on the table, but do get tested

macdebbie

Spookiesmom and Mountainmia - there's no way that it's COVID as I haven't (and neither has my husband) had contact with anyone - and that means no one - other than each other since April 2020, even outside, except for my surgery Sept, my surgery FU appt a week later and my post surgery appt with my MO, which was a month ago.

I am fully vaccinated and the only place I've been other than my surgery in Sept (when I was tested for COVID) is radiation. And there I wear an N95 mask and a surgical mask over that and am only in the waiting room (where everyone else is also wearing a mask) for 5 min or so before I am called in.

We don't even go to the grocery store, we use Instacart, and we wash all the groceries in the garage with bleach wipes before we bring them into the house. We leave the mail in the garage for 5 days and then open it in the garage with gloves. So the only way I got it, if I got it which is highly unlikely is from the rad techs. But I will call tomorrow to be safe.

I realized after I wrote this that they did something different Friday and today that probably caused this. They had me move down lower on the table, which means my arms and back were stretched out further than they have been all the other times. I have severe spinal stenosis in addition to both cervical and thoracic arthritis, so I'm sure that has aggravated my spine, muscles and nerves and caused the pain.

I was also reading in Susan Love's book that proteins from radiation as the body tries to repair itself circulate throughout the body and can cause discomfort.

TB90

Of course there will be aches, pains, and other SE’s associated with treatment. They also occur following gardening or anything else that challenges our bodies. Unless extreme and persistent, do exactly as you did. Take a Tylenol and relax.

AliceBastable

I've had a sore shoulder for three years due to the positioning during radiation in 2018, plus achiness in my midriff area. For me, there are always unwanted physical souvenirs from surgeries and treatments.