Increased Problem with Asthma After Rads?

I just finished rads last week, so I have no idea what will be long-term. I have had a bit of an increase in asthma but I don't know if it's from the rads. I used to take very large doses of Vit. C (4 grams per day) as a natural antihistimine but stopped it with the chemo and rads (antioxidents are contraindicated with chemo/rads) and will be starting them again next week when I am 2 weeks out of rads so I'll see if that makes a difference.

Leah

It seems the increase in asthma is still there even though I'm back in the Vit. C (which has helped the itchy eyes and drippy nose). Asthma is not more severe, just more frequent.

Before I started rads my med onc said the asthma culd get worse, but his feeling was that the risk of recurrence/mets was greater than the risk of even severe asthma. The rad onc said it wouldn't affect the asthma but rad oncs say that about a lot of SEs.

Mantra of rad oncs: it's not from the rads, it's not from the rads.

Leah

YES, I agee with you,  I am having breathing problems since radiation, they told me I could get radiation bronchitis or pneumonia from radiation and in the last week I am having a really hard time getting my breath.

yikes, I am scheduled to start rads soon, and I have athsma as well, though since it is so dormant I have not been on meds for a while. I wonder if I should start up with athsma meds again?

I wonder if this means I should go with the 16 rads over the 25? I still wonder what to do about that as well. 

????

I have had breathing issues due to allergies all my life.  They had been pretty much under control for the few years before bc dx.  After rads, I had to go on Advair twice a day.  Really does help. I am certain that rads brought it back.  So is my gp.  

Hello mjkpuff - I had ER/PR- HER2++ breast cancer in 2003, had surgery, refused rads because I had just developed asthma. Refused chemo too as I do not like being ill. But it is a difficult decision isn't it, and the harassment has to be experienced to be believed! Got local recurrence in 2004  and 2008 as one might expect but coped with that in the same way - surgery only.

What did you do and how are you doing?  I hope you are well and looking after yourself.

I agree with what you say here Raili - Having declined the "preventative" mastectomy I was offered after 2x DCIS surgery, I now have this small cancer for which they are offering me lumpectomy/excision followed by radiotherapy saying that will be sufficient. The more I read about rads the more I'm thinking that a mastectomy - though pretty major initially, sounds like it will have fewer side effects and be over and done with. I've asked for a call-back from the breast care nurse to try and find the right solution for me. I'm more scared of making the "wrong" decision on treatment than I am of the cancer!! How on earth do people reach a decision???

I didnt get clear margins with my first DCIS surgery, hence the second. Then he was recommending a precautionary mastectomy and now, its a "real" cancer and they say excision plus radiation ???

This morning I woke around 4am and by the time the alarm went off (5.30) to get up for work I had decided DEFINITELY on asking for the mastectomy. By 5pm, I was at my mums, having told her the diagnosis, heard how well Uncle Peter was during/between his 3 courses of radiation... quite liking the idea of hanging on to the (almost) matching pair... except of course, that I am not Uncle Peter and his was in his ear!! (and it returned...)

I did see the plastic surgeon (always makes me think of a little plastic action man toy that would melt under the theatre lights) about a year ago, and he explained the mastectomy/reconstruction procedure in (a little too much) detail... and the breast care nurse said I could have a mould taken for a temporary plastic nipple. I asked what colour I could get - she said whatever I wanted but probably 'me' colour "because you wouldn't want a purple one would you....hahaha" - Well, YES as it goes...I WOULD! I even went as far as cutting the top of an empty tube of handcream to make a model....

I didnt want anyone with me when I went for my results and, as it turned out, I got a very last minute appointment on an afternoon when I was supposed to be working - so I got into work just before 5pm and did the rest of the shift.

Wizzy, I like that mental image of a plastic surgeon... ha!  I will have to remember that.

I don't know much about reconstruction stuff...wow, temporary plastic nipples can be PURPLE??   That could be interesting.  Every summer, I go to the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, which is a week camping in the woods with about 6,000 women, workshops, concerts, etc... the festival is clothing-optional, and women wear a lot of outrageous costumes as well as wearing nothing at all.  There are naked women with two breasts, one breast, and no breasts.  Anyone who showed up with PURPLE NIPPLES would be so revered!   (One year, there was a woman with bright blue pubic hair.  I don't know how that came about!)

In sort of related news, my nipple was bright blue for a few hours after surgery, due to the radioactive dye they had injected in it beforehand.  That was pretty funny to me.  My pee was bright blue as well, for the next EIGHT TIMES that I peed.

Wow, now I'm really off on a tangent, huh!  Life with BC just feels so surreal... never in a million years would I have imagined I'd have a blue nipple, or be posting about it on the Internet... geez.

I wanna ask my surgeon if having a double mast would prevent me from needing rads/chemo/hormone therapy.  I seriously don't think I would mind not having breasts, if it meant I could avoid those awful treatments.  And I wouldn't go through reconstruction, either.  Having been with so many no-breasted women at the festival for 6 years in a row now, having no breasts has become "normalized" enough to me... also, I am a trapeze student, and there are certain trapeze moves that would be much easier without breasts.  Especially while working with a partner - you wouldn't believe how many times ones boobs are in the way or accidentally kicked... hmmm. 

BAAAH!! Wizzy!  That's hilarious!  That would be a great short film, or a comic book or something... Scene: Operating Room, where a camera zooms in on a purple-nippled breast, and then goes inside of it, where there is a teensy weensy priest handing out bread and wine to a congregation of teensy weensy people...everyone is singing hymns in tiny, squeaky voices... then back to the outside of the breast, where there is a plastic action-figure surgeon who is attempting to perform surgery, but oops, his instruments are plastic, too, and oops, he begins to melt under those hot OR lights and becomes a puddle of goo.

Oh, geez, I was disturbed enough when one of the millions of questions the surgery receptionist asked me was whether I "gave permission" for "visiting clergy" to come to my room.  Huh??  Nooo, I do not want some random priest wandering in to see me... why is that my only option?  Can I not have a visiting poet come and recite something lovely, or a visiting Ice Cream Truck Driver come give me a Dove bar?  Now I will be freaked out by the mental image of a microscopic priest behind my nipple!!  Ahhhh!  

 Oh, and yes, trapeze has made me strong!!   I was a couch-potato weakling when I started, then worked my way up to being able to do 10 pull-ups!  I haven't done trapeze in a few weeks, thanks to the stupid lumpectomy and now the upcoming re-excision, but I'm looking forward to returning to the bar...

Yo Raili... you're watching the same movie as me  Give permission to visiting clergy????? ...and you thought they meant full-sized ones???? I like the visiting poet idea...better yet a visiting and amazingly clever medical researcher who has discovered a miracle cure that doesn't have side effects!!!!

Thanks for your good wishes Deb. Glad to hear that your life is returning to normal. How many weeks rads did you have? I usually only use a Beclometazone inhaler (2 puffs twice daily) with Ventolin as/when necessary... not very often for now so its pretty mild. I dont have peak flow meters but I could get checked at the doctors or the gym. I am still more or less ok with the diagnosis because it wasn't a total shock from the blue. They told me, I said "Right, ok" and went to work.

I'm not working this week as I'd already booked it as leave - I feel like this is my "one week to do stuff" and its frustrating to still be waiting for a call from the BC nurse. I need her input to try to make this decision and I need her to be checking out available dates if I opt for the mastectomy. To be honest, I wish the consultant hadn'r even suggested the lumpectomy because I wasn't expecting him to and had assumed that , following his suggesteion of mastectomy after DCIS there would be no alternative....& I wouldn't have to be making the decision... This way, I have responsibility over what happens but still no real control.

Sorry, rambling on because I'm thinking out loud....

Take care all

BTW I did have a radical mastectomy but because my 1 positive node had "spillage" I need 28 doses of radiation after 6 rounds of chemo.

triplhh93---YES YES YES, it is exhausting.  Since November when I was diagnoised, it has been exhausting. 

And Wizzy and Raili, I would like to be visited not necessarily by the Dove man but maybe the people from the local specialty chocolate store called Chocolate Box.  Oh and I don't want stupid blue dots to mark where the radiation goes:  I want hearts.  Or stars.  Or glaring faces.

hmmm, when I met with radiation oncologist yesterday she made no mention of asthma complications.  She did focus on how I have grade 3 DCIS and how there is a very high rate of reoccurance if I only did the lumpectomy AND that when it reoccurs, its not always DCIS.

With three kids, I don't want to take chances but at the same time, I don't want to be crippled with asthma either.

I am getting my treatment at a breast center---my radiation oncologist said that the equipment is being checked almost daily because they participate in lots of blind studies and so they need to make sure everything is in perfect order.  That sounded good to me--what does anyone else think?

Hi, ladies, just thought I would chime in about my experience, relevant or not.  I finished rads about 10 days ago and my allergies are no worse than usual but I did catch bronchitis 2 or 3 days ago.  My personal, unscientific opinion is that my immune system is not up to snuff and I was vulnerable to a virus although I have TRIED to be careful about handwashing.