Can you/did you ever miss a day?

When I was taking radiation from 12/08 - 2/09, I had to miss a day due to snow and slick roads.  It was no big deal.  They just tacked an extra day on to the end of my treatment.  Some women actually end up taking a break mid-radiation if they are having lots of skin reactions.  Good luck with your treatments!

Absolutely not a problem to miss a day.  My treatments started before the holidays, so I missed Christmas and New Year's days automatically, and then missed a couple of other days at other times due to bad roads.  For me, they just tacked on the missed days to the ends of my treatments.  I had 38 treatments total.

You might ask your radiation oncologist about the questions you have about people getting similar treatments.  I think the every day thing is standard partly because it's easier on people to get less strong treatments more often than stronger treatments farther apart.  Within that, I'm guessing dosage, etc., may vary quite a bit.  I had most of my treatments on the entire breast but the last 5 treatments were targeted to where my lump had been.  There's room for a lot of variation within the every day program.

Meanwhile, plan on going to your work meeting!  And good luck!

It is ok to skip a day, I asked. No big deal.

Like everyone said, you can miss a day.  I knew I had a couple of long planned three day weekends and told my radiation oncologist about them up front.  She scheduled me to start a week later to fit one in and ok'd my missing a day for the other one.

I am more inclined to think that everyone gets relatively the same treatment for the same reason we can buy tylenol or whatever for a headache as opposed to having some drug compounded---its a treatment that works a particular way and it doesn't need a particular degree of specialization.  Healthy normal cells can get X amount of radiation and either not be bothered or rebuild themselves in Z time but nasty awful cancer cells get X amount of radiation and need Z X 5 time to recover.  So the unhealthy cells get repeated exposure to the radiation and don't have time or ability to reinvent themselves and eventually they die off while the healthy cells regroup and go on mostly because there is still some degree of damage for some people.

At least thats how I understand it.

Hi Raili,

I, like others above, had treatment during the holidays so I had a couple weeks of only 4 treatments.  I also missed a day due to a fever, but my Onc told me it was important to get three treatments in without a break between them.  I was lucky to get sick on a Thursday.:)  As for the amount of treatments, the time may be about the same but the size of the area may be different.  I know other women that had one or two areas done and were in and out in 15 minutes.  I had 5 done and was there 45 minutes every day.  I hope you get a chance to talk to your doctor about your questions, and good luck with treatment.

I had a week's vacation scheduled for the middle of rads--scheduled before I was diagnoses.  I went on vacation as planned, the rad onc was pissed and let it show, but he couldn't give me a good reason why it would be any kind of problem.  If rads really need to be daily, then they wouldn't take weekends and holidays off.  Also, radiation therapy hasn't changed in decades, and is no more or less effective now than in the 50s. 

Raili, the rads are not a "one size fits all" treatment. The simulation is to target the area(s) to be radiated. The amount of radiation given is determined by your specific diagnosis. Sure, a lot of that is "standard" but I got more rads since I had Stage II (of III - long story) than a woman who had DCIS.

Ask your rad onc how many Grey (measure of rads) you will be getting and ask for an explanation of why/where etc.

Leah

Leah S  is correct , and you'll want the weekends off.  My rad onc developed with the staff an individualized plan based on where the tumor was, my breast size and the dose was different. the number of treatments may be "standard of care" but the plans are different.  who has her arms above your head, who lays on your back, or stomach, etc.

for me  I had 23 full breast treatments and 7 boosts to the tumor area with the maxi um dosage available for all 30 treatments. Due to holidays I was treated on the weekends and at the end  the boost area was treated, that area was defined by the tumor markers left in my breast during surgery).  I asked for and got New Years Eve off .

I missed a day because the treatment centre had a holiday. No one mentioned that it would matter or not by missing a day. Also, I had 15 radiation treatments and 5 boosters. When I asked how come I am not having more, the reply was: because you have little boobs! I am not sure that is right as a friend of mine has tiny ones and she had more rads.

Raili & MarieKelly, You both had  "great" post!    I could not of said it better if I tried.  I so agree with what both of you said. Right on point!  I am currently doing radiation on my femur...not breast...but since rads is so important I find it interesting that since no one works weekends...they say we don't get rads to give the body and skin a break.  Couldn't be that it's just as simple as ppl don't work weekends.  I've been having some problems since I started radiation and right in the middle of it my Rads onc said I could just take the day off and at the end we could give me a boost or double dose to make up for the missed one.  (Makes no sense to me you can just miss days since this is so important.)  I told her no thank you...I don't want to be double dosed to make up for a missed day.

I am a firm believer that one size does not fit all...it's time they changed this way of thinking.  I asked how they come up to 10 days for my femur.   It is all about the "standard of care" as MarieKelly said. I just asked my rads onc yesterday how they decided on how many days each person gets?  And she pretty much echo'd what Marie said:  >>>>treatment is prescribed according to what's been determined to be most beneficial for a large group of people<<<<<.  So I said we know that the 10 days is enough in the case of my femur?  She said she hoped so but of course there is never any guarantees.  (Which I know this but it sure is frustrating to have to go thur all this cancer trt and not know  who it will benefit from it and who won't.) 

But that fear comes into play as someone here already mentioned.  I worry that if I don't do that 10 days as scheduled...if my cancer returns in that area I will feel its because I didn't complete the full course of rads.   When it comes to our cancer fear plays a big part in having trt.  We are all so different..so I wish they would get away from one size fits all.  But that is too time consuming it seems.  (Venting a bit.)

Chelee