October Rads. 2009
Comments
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Thanks for the added info. What exactly IS an astringent? The kind I use on my face has a lot of alcohol, but this obviously does not.
It WAS a long weekend!
Since the rest of the skin seemed to be OK, just the nipple affected, I taped that toilet paper tube/cone down, before I went on a major excursion to the city Saturday, involving lots of walking, with my husband and kids. In retrospect that was a bad idea. I should have just kept it in place with a stretchy bra. I am sure the cardboard cylinder/cone would have been fine if I had not taped it down on the last day. I wore it Wed through Friday with no ill effects.
It began to really hurt by the end of the day but I was not in a position to go look at it. When I got home I took it off, and the skin came off with the tape. This was skin that had looked just fine, before, just tanned. But the nipple was much better after 2 days of Neosporin. And not only was the raw skin very sore, but 2 new areas were also now infected and oozing.
Up until now, I have NEVER had any kind of skin infection. I had never had any kind of scratch or wound get infected. I still cannot stand to have anything touch the affected skin or nipple, not even gauze, it stings like crazy: but now I have a much larger area to deal with. I tried several things to keep my clothes off it, but finally made a ring out of cardboard large enough to circle the breast and then some. It is large enough in diameter to rest on the skin outside the irradiated area. I did a lot of fitting and trimming to make it contour to my ribs and side. That is being held in place with my very stretchy "Barely There" bra. I hope this way it is getting some air under my clothes too. I am wearing all wool today (apart from the bra) so hopefully it can breathe.
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Hi guys
It is officially one month since I have finished radiation and I haven't looked back. However, I am just soooo tired all the time. I yawn all day at work and go to bed early. I continue to try to walk daily but I just amble along and then rest afterwards. Is anyone else kind of done with radiation and tired still? I am usually lazy but I am just way lazy these days. Is there anyone else like that??? good to see everyone finishing up on radiation too. We're all in the home stretch!
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Tara, I finished chemo back at the middle of Oct. and still haven't seen any regrowth. My hair looks good, about 1 inch long now, and I have hair on my legs and "other" places. But not my eyelashes and brows. I never lost them all, just patches, so I can still draw some brows in and am using a strengthener for my lashes.
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God Blessed! Thanks you for letting me know. I finish chemo like two weeks ago. and my hair on my head start growing out very quiclky. I'm very thankful for that. I had very thick eyebrow and it only thinning. As for my eyelashes. The top have a little on both side. As for the bottom I don't have any. What is the name of the strengthener you're using on you lasehes??? Also I notice that you're triple negative. Are you plaining on using any type of medication after you finish with radiation???? I'm also triple negative, but my doctor suggested that she wants to see me in February to decide if I should use Tamoxifen. I'm really scared and worried about the side effect. I havn't decided yet what I'm going to do. Take care hope to hear from you really soon.
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My last rad treatment was a week ago, the Wed. before Thanksgiving, had been doing ok. Since then my skin has turned more of a dark purplish red and been more sensitive, I now have a couple bright red sores under my arm and under the curve of my breast, today in the shower I broke out in a major rash from under the breast down to my waist (my breast does not touch this area) and broke out under the other breast that has not been involved in any treatment. What is going on?
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kime wrote: broke out in a major rash from under the breast down to my waist (my breast does not touch this area) and broke out under the other breast that has not been involved in any treatment.
Kime - Not certain if it was intentional but even in your pain, your parenthical is funny. Just picturing these HUGE breasts going all the way to your waist. LOL. But seriously, what's new that touching your body - soap ? washcloth ? moisturizer ? laundry detergent ? new tee shirt or blouse ? new dry cleaners ? taking any new pills ? If you can't figure it out, it makes sense to call your radonc for advice ...just to be certain this isn't rads related (can't see how, but better to ask) and maybe he/she can give you some advice. Let us know what you figure out.
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I am on my last week of rads. I did pretty good throughout as far as being tired. The first week or 2 was tiring as I started rads pretty soon after chemo. I was trying to avoid the winter weather starting here. I am on my last week and am getting boosts only. Did anyone else get much more tired during their last weeks that had boosts or is it all just creeping up on me now?
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Hi Ladies,
I finished rads on 20th Nov. I suffered pretty bad skin breakdown under my armpit which started on the last 3 days of full breast radiation and got progressively worse through my boosts. I ended up with a raw ring around my entire breast.
My last boost was on 20th Nov and the boost area is still red and raw, the restof my breast is more or less "healed". New skin has formed. I am sill using Silverdene on the raw boost area. Since it worked to clear up the other areas I am not overly concerned yet but I am due to start taking Tamoxifen today and I was wondering whether the Tamox would have a negative effect on the healing. I don't want anything to slow down the healing process. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
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Kimby - As far as I can tell (and I've read everything I can get my hands on), T wont have any impact on your healing. It seems that women often take a break between the two simply because they're sick of putting their bodies thru this crap and just want some down time. A little vacation. (And keep in mind, some med oncs even start their patients on T before/ during rads and I've not read of more severe burning/ healing issues for them....T during rads is a bit controversial since there's a lot of thinking that because T keeps the cancer at bay, radiation can't find the cancer cells as readily.)
If you're ready, go for it....you shouldn't have any SE for a while (if at all) anyway. I finished Rads November 2nd and started T 12 days later; it only took me that long because I needed the prescription.
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MTG - LOL on that picture - haven't changed anything, still using the same creams, etc. but I did start wearing a very large flannel shirt around the house the last couple of days, maybe I'm having a flannel reaction ;-) I'll call the rad onc's office tomorrow if the rash is still there, think I am just more disappointed that even after rads the joy of rads still lives on for a while. oh well, it has to start getting better soon so that is something to look forward to.
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Kime - Hey, a NYC girl like myself might have a reaction to flannel but it didn't think SoCal girls were that way ! ~smile ~ Even though it sounds silly, why not dump the shirt into the laundry anyway and try simething else - there might be something on the shirt from laundry/ cleaning/ hanging around (even hubby's cologne).
And yes, it WILL start getting better soon.
I'm going to be very, very bad - going to FL on Saturday (not quite 5 weeks after Rads) and planning on laying in the sun !!!! If my skin reacts then I'll deal with cover ups and sun block. But I'm sick of being pasty white and feeling pale and icky. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. And yes, my rad onc knows....she also knows that I'm not good at following rules....we shall see.
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MTG - a vacation sounds great - enjoy yourself !!
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Kime--I'm breaking out with a rash now, too...started four days after rads ended and now at six days post-rads it's worse. Red, raised bumps all over the radiation field...like pimples but don't seem to be fluid-filled. During today's routine follow-up with my medical oncologist, she looked at it and said she thinks it's radiation related and not from starting tamoxifen. She said she wants me to call my rad onco if it gets worse over the next two days.
Mystery rash...at least it doesn't itch too much. Yet.
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tracyanne - I had something very similar to your rash - pimple-like, not itchy, esp the area beneath my sternum and above my breast where the skin was thinnest. What worked for me was NOTHING. Now, I dont mean that nothing I did worked; I mean that I took a bath, washed off ALL moiturizers and creams, went to sleep topless - so I used NOTHING for the first time in weeks. In the AM the rash was gone. I did experiment and noticed that the rash would come back in places when I put on lotions (and I experimented with different lotions, including Cortizone for rashes.) My guess - my skin just got tired of having all that goop on it.
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TARA- for me I think it was about 2 months for my eyebrows and eyelashes to fully return. It seems that during those 2 months they would start to grow and then I would notice I was loosing them again. I would use brown eyeshadow for my eyebrows and it looked really good.
YEAH!!! Three more days of radiation. I am so ready to start on mega doses of vitamins. Good luck to everyone and God Bless
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Tomorrow is my last day!!! My last of 5 boosts. It seemed like it would be such a long, long, ordeal when I started. I can't believe now that this phase is almost behind me. I now know every single grocery store, hardware store, etc., on the route to the hospital. If I combined the trips it didn't feel so much like I was "going for radiation", rather that I was just "out running errands".
I made pearl earrings tonight for the female techs (I'm a jeweler, so it seemed the simplest idea). They often commented on my different earrings when I came in each day. I think I wore jewelry in the beginning, mostly because I felt so anonymous in my baggy blue print hospital gown. It was asserting a statement of individuality. After a while I wore them because I didn't want to disappoint them!
There are 2 men too, I will probably get them each a small box of candy, as I could not think of anything else. They both look too conservative for jewelry. If anyone has a brainstorm, let me know.
My skin did quite well until AFTER I was done with the regular treatments. When I got a nipple infection on boost day #1 it was bad for a while after that. That was followed by some shallow skin sores. I also did better washing everything off, then letting everything dry out. Once everything scabbed over (which it only really did this morning) I felt much better. They started to heal fast though, since they were no longer getting daily abuse.
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Linn56- I made bookmarks for my techs. A simple multi strand of beads on a large jump ring on one end of a ribbon and a single strand at the other end. I used up a lot of left over beads from larger projects. Everyone seems to like them.
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I have started stocking up on cookie-baking supplies for the holidays...I have one great chocolate cookie recipe and then two nice recipes I wanted to try. Maybe I can make some cookies for my wonderful techs. I had really thought that I would "skip" Christmas this year, because a month ago I didn't have the energy for it. I could barely think of it being the holiday season. But now, suddenly (!) I am down to 4 more treatments...and I feel amazing! Just knowing it's almost behind me is giving me such hope! Maybe I will have Christmas after all! God bless us every one! :-)
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linn-congrats yesterday on ringing the bell!
Suzanne-I can't speak for everyone else, but I for one am soooooo feel amazingly better. My last rads was 11-13 and other than a couple painful icky spots on my poor girl, I was ready to go dancing or something! I feel great now and Christmas is going to be just as awesome as TGiving was!
Off to watch University of Oregon whip Oregon State University in football (hopefully). It's the Civil War game & the winner goes to the Rose Bowl!
Joni
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Yep, I felt the same way, no way did I have the energy or time to set up the tree and drag out all the decorations. But now I am feeling much better and getting so much done around here.Putting on Christmas music daily while I work and breaking projects down to small amounts has helped. I rolled 120 cherries yesterday for dipping and plan to do the other 80 tomorrow during the Florida/Alabama game.
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Dipping? Dipping with chocolate? Oooh, tell me more. Lately I can't get chocolate to melt. I don't know what's up with that.
My daughter had her heart set on dipping strawberries in white chocolate for Thanksgiving. I use to have one brand of white chocolate chips to use for dipping, but they must have changed the formula and they would not melt anymore. They get soft but never liquid enough for dipping. So I bought white chocolate melts. And even those would not melt. We tried both the double boiler and the microwave. They all became more like fudge than melted. The longer we tried, the firmer each batch got. We must have melted 2 lbs, in small batches several different ways. What's the secret?
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I still can't believe I'm done. Yesterday was my first weekday "without". At the time when I would normally have left the house, it was like an alarm going off in my head..."ding...ding...ding...go to go... got to go". Instead I took a long shower, and tried to wash some of the permanent marker off that circled my boost zone. I felt high all day.
Today I'm down from the euphoria, but still feeling good. No ambition to do anything, though. I should be making the follow-up appt with the radiation doctor, plus the oncologist, but have done neither. Until I do, I'm "done" . See? I know I will, but once I have something scheduled, it's back to reality. My husband wants to take me out to dinner to celebrate, but I have had a touch of nausea for the last week and don't want to go until that goes away. It's not bad, but not something I want to challenge.
The techs loved the earrings I made. I made 6 dangles and 2 posts, all pearls, and let them decide which kind they wanted. They were not all there so I gave one the rest to distribute to the absent ones. I gave a small bag of Ghirardelli chocolate to the 2 men.
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Congratulations Linn, on finishing!! That must feel great! I hope you feel well enough to let your DH take you out for that dinner! You deserve a celebration! I do think that some of the chocolate companies are cheaping-out on their products! I do know that it is important that you melt chocolate slowly over low heat and be sure there is no water getting into the chocolate (like, not a drop!). I have also read that you can sometimes add a tiny bit of vegetable oil to loosen it up. I think white chocolate the trickiest of all!
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Hi to all October Rad ladies
Seems like all of us are finally done, and getting on with feeling better.
I am already 3 weeks POST rads, and feel more energetic every day, but still have some down time. Don't always sleep well either, how is everyone else sleeping ? I was wondering how many of us are going on to hormone therapy like Femara, Tamoxifen or Arimidex to name a few.
I for one was encouraged (told) to take Femara for 5 years by onc. doctor, I am going to wait until after the holidays to make my decision, I need a month of feeling good about being alive again, it's been a tough road on and off since my diagnosis in June 09, and I have started reading the posts about femara on this site to get a little input regarding sideeffects as I always seem to get them all no matter what kind of medication I am prescribed. The biggest worries for me is that I already have osteoporosis, and one of femara's sideeffects is bone loss, the other is arthritis, and some many report bone, joint aches, gee whiz, treatment of this disease is never an easy road and it never, ever comes with any guarantees.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
dsgirl
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Congrats to Linn & blondie45! Congrats to all of us Oct. Rad Ladies.
I'm sooooo happy to be done with getting zapped. I took 4 days off afterwards and basically layed around and slept a lot. I decided to keep up with getting acupunture treatments once a week for the next 3 weeks. I always feel so much better afterwards, that I hoping it will speed up my recovery.
We all had weeks and weeks of getting zapped by radiation - after going through various operations and drugs for months and months. So, we much be patient and continue to take care of our healing bodies.
My dear little breast is now brown, dry and peeling. It seems to drink up the aloe I put on it. All my open wounds have healed and it's not so tender that I'm protecting it all the time. Still not wearing anything tight or have put a bra back on, because it seems to still like as much air as possible.
Yea for us!
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dsgirl-I started Femara on 11-16 (last rads 11-13). Knock on wood, so far so good, no real SE. I too have joint pain as a part of daily life, but it hasn't seemed to increase anything at all. Don't know about the osteoporosis. Had a bone scan prior to the end of rads but my onc didn't have results @ appt where she gave me the Femara. Joni
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RING A DING DING for all of the OCTOBER RADS girls!!!!!! We did it - or are about to do it.
Ring those bells!!!!!!!!
Love,
Liz
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Hmmm...so now the bumpy rash on my right breast has spread all the way down the inside of my right arm. I liked the advice here of just not using any special cream or soap on the breast, and the rash actually started looking a lot better, but this morning it's back and travels from armpit to wrist on that side.
I'll call the rad onco in the morning...wonder if it's anything to worry about? Any of you heard of or had similar experience?
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tracyanne - my breast is starting to heal from the radiation, but I do still have the rash running from under the radiated breast down to my waist - it doesn't itch it is just there. I did stop using any creams or soap on the radiated area, just a little neosporin on a area under the fold of the breast that had become very raw after radiation was done. I think that has helped somewhat, but the weird rash is stll there outside of the radiated area. I just haven't had time to call the rad onc, and it hasn' been bothering me. Let us know what your rad onc says. I don't think it is anything to worry about, but it is strange that it would appear right after radiation.
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Saw the rad onco just now about the rash. The nurse was sure surprised when she saw the rash went all the way down to my wrist on the inside of that arm! Then the doc came in and his eyebrows went up, too...said that he hadn't ever seen a radiation-related rash travel so far and that he doubted this one was a result of radiation...but he gave me a prescription for a course of steroids. If that doesn't clear it up, I"m to see my GP for the next step. Said that rashes were often a mystery...hard to pinpoint as to cause...but that we could at least treat it even if we don't know what's causing it.
It's itchy and uncomfortable, but not painful. Hope the steroids work quickly!
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