Coughing & Shortness of Breath During or After Rads

Dear Berry,

I have not been so unfortunate as to have the breathing side effects from radiation that so many have so it may seem easy for me to ask you to think twice about discontinuing RT.  I'm not suggesting you resume your recent therapy at all.  I was thinking you could look in to IMRT (image modulated radiation therapy) or the technique given with the patient lying on their stomach.  Both apparently target the tumor bed more precisely and spare the heart and lungs better.  I hated radiation and found it very stressful but I surely wanted the reduction in recurrence it provided.

Please forgive me for inserting my differing opinion.  I just want you to get good treatment.

Best wishes however you decide.

pam 

I could have written this myself.  Within a week of being done with radiation, I had such a shortness of breath, I could hardly bring in a load of laundry and fold it.  And I am a very active person.  Well, I agree, my rad onc is a total asshole,  even tho I gave the nurse all the details, he never even mentioned my problem.  I went to my PCP and he diagnosed radiation bronchitis/pneumonia .  I have now been on steroids (including shots) and antibiotics for more than a month.  It still isn't great.   I was told before radiation that there is a very slight chance of radiation pneumonia and they have never seen it at my local hospital.  well that was a damn lie.  So instead of going 90 to nothing every day, I have to work at breathing.  No energy back yet after almost 3 months. and it really SUCKS!!!!!  So I feel for you girl, hopefully it gets better, I just dont know when.

Yes, the famous mantra of the rad oncs, "It's not from the rads. It's not from the rads".

I have mild asthma and since rads it's been much more frequent though not more severe (finished rads in august). Med onc said worsening of asthma was a possibility but he felt the danger of not doing rads in my case far outweighed the danger of even severe asthma. Rad onc said it won't affect the asthma. Guess who I believe.

Leah

Sigh.

The gift that keeps on giving.

Leah

I haven't looked on here in a couple weels.  My respiratory virus is gone, lingering cough is minimal, and sore ribs still sore but not nearly as bad.  The thing about rads is that the fibrosis develops over months and even years, so if you just recently finished rads you don't know if you are only just now seeing the tip of the iceberg of symptoms to come.  Not that I want more radiation, but I will be very curious to look at my next chest X-ray whenever and see how the lung looks on there.

If you are on Tamox., watch out, some of the cough and cold preparations interact with it.

Glad to find this thread, I thought I was the only one not wanting to go on with rads. My rads were postponed because my incision still isn't healed (2 months) I have gotten the same thing, I was under the impression from the rads onco that their was a SLIGHT possibility of hitting my lungs and when I went in for the first rad treatment I asked the tech and she said " of course we are, 2% of the bottom of your lung, we can't miss it" Well since then I have been doing a lot of research and yes, I don't want to be stupid about this but I too am for QUALITY of life. I have cronic bronchitis from years of smoking  and deal with a cough as it is. Also read an article right here on Breastcancer.org under radiation/side effects on relation of lung cancer in radiation breast cancer patients.patients that have smoked or do smoke and no rads had a 6x higher rate of lung cancer than none smokers and the ones that have smoked or do smoke and also had rads treatment it went to 19x's. My bs told me I have a 20% reaccurence rate without rads and 10% rate with it. Remember there is no gaurentee you won't get it in the other breast. I am 65 and diabetic, I sure don't need more complications. I am simply glad to see I'm not alone on these thouhgts. However if my diagnosis was different I'm sure I would reconsider the consequences. I had very wide clear margins and in the low risk catagory and no chemo

Hi Jeannette, I have just as many reservations on Tomox. I hope you do well on it and I hope they keep a good watch out for other cancers it can cause. Didn't you say you still had all your parts, just like me? If I had been given the info on the mammosite device I definatley would have gone that way and not be in the position I am in now. I'm getting more and more distrustful of the "care" I am getting. My incision is still not healed and to add insult to injury they billed me for the stitches they put in when it was my surgeon that didn't get it closed in the first place. They say "trust me this is what you NEED" and I'm supposed to trust them with my future health? Any comments welcome, some how I need to come to a decision.

Flo