MARCH 2010 Rads Group

Sherri, my under-wire bra is more comfortable then some of the others I have bought. As soon as it doesn't hurt to wear it should be fine, at least for part of the day.

 For those of us who are done at the end of the week let the countdown begin! I've been in a lot of pain this weekend and have no idea what my LB will look like by the end of the week. I'm just glad the top area can now begin to heal. 

My husband said your all putting on the pressure with talk of lunches in your favorite restaurants. I'll be done on Friday by 4:30, so dinner would be nice. 

Good luck to everyone this week, those in the countdown and those of you who are healing. 

HI ALL

Sorry golden eyes im on my boosts so i dont know if it all normal for some pain to come back but i guess it would take a while for the tissues to heal properly i get funny shooting pain across my breast i would imagine it  to continue a little while after, id give it another month and if it hasnt settled down by then talk to someone about it .

4 more boosts to go, least i didnt cry at rads today even my Slam dunks arnt that hard any more . CONGRADS to every one who has finished, enjoy your dinner out, the girls at work said they will take me out for dinner so yeh i guess my D/H has gotten of lightly he thinks he is one of the lucky ones  lol

Sugar's right. You get varied levels of jewelry based on what treatments you've received. Lumpectomy= Big jewel. Radiation= Stunning smaller jewels!

Having a good attitude while you feel like your world is breaking apart =  A lifetime of pampering!!!

Jo Jo - 4 more boosts for me too!  I still can't believe I'll be done this Friday!  It sure went by fast!  My skin is holding up pretty good, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed I won't get any blisters.  Enjoy your dinner out with your friends, I plan on spending Friday afternoon with my husband and kids and then out to a nice dinner with just my husband.

Fatigue has hit me pretty hard the last couple of days.  I'm exhausted by 10:00 in the morning and ready to crawl back into bed.  For those of you that have finished, does the fatigue go away pretty quick? I can't remember how long it took to get my energy back after my chemo treatments, but I hope it doesn't take as long.   I think I'm going to have to take a nap this afternoon if I'm going to make it until 9:00 tonight

Sherri - My onc said I could wear whatever kind of bra was comfortable for me, I would imagine you can go back to underwire by now, unless you are too sore.

Have a good afternoon everyone!

Hi all,

Happily enough I was able to start boosts today as scheduled.  They looked really closely before they went ahead but the blister area is outside the field for the boosts which made it okay to go forward.  They told me it should get better over the next week or so as it won't be exposed to any more radiation. I got the impression that had it been in the boost area, I might have been delayed.

So I'm on track to finish up on Friday with Mommaof2 and I think Raili and anyone else?

Mommaof2, about the fatigue.  My ZapTechs told me to give in and sleep when my body feels really wiped out.  Interestingly enough, if I give in for a day or two--go home early, take naps--then I feel much more energetic for the next few days.  Last week I was truly wiped out.  I went home early, took naps, cut myself some slack and was able to truly charge through my weekend.  Today when I woke up, I didn't feel that fatigue and right now I'm still feeling good, after my zap and my 3/4 mile walk.  So my advise to you is surrender for a day or two.  Go back to bed at 10am [funny thats when it was hitting me too].  Bring a book and a hot cup of herbal tea and nap the day away.  If you are like me, the next day you will be set to go.

Four More!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Golden Eyes, it's hard to say what's "normal".  I'm not getting rads for pain management, so I have no personal experience to fall back on, but it seems to me that a lot of things could cause pain if you have tumor in bone.  If you have radiation and the tumor shrinks or even disappears, you could still have pain because there's damage to the bone where the tumor used to be.  Or sometimes pain can be caused by radiation itself.  The best answers would have to come from the doctors who have been treating you - they may recommend bisphosphonates or chemotherapy if the radiation has not done the job.  (Sorry - more tests, more therapy isn't what we look forward to, but if you're having pain, just trying to live with it is not a good option either.)  I wish you well.

fan2544 - lymphedema is a possibility, although swelling is a very general symptom and could be caused by a lot of other things too.  You can have all your lymph nodes intact, but still have scar tissue or fibrosis affecting the movement of fluid in the dermal tissue leading to the nodes.  Radiation can cause fibrosis.  Have it checked out as soon as you can. Hopefully there's another explanation, but if it is lymphedema, quick therapy is key to getting it under control. Here's a link for further reading : http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-radiation-fibrosis.htm.  Good luck.

Hi-

I'm 4 weeks out from radiation now, and 5 months out from diagnosis. I have my first appointment after starting Tamoxifen with my medical oncologist this Wed., and my first follow up with my rads oncologist on Friday. I'm a little nervous-not too much-but it reminds me that I had cancer and I've been trying not to think about that too much.

My radiated breast is shrinking a bit. My skin is going back to its normal color, but still feels a bit tight. I still don't have any hair in the lower half of my armpit-seared off by the rads, I think.  

I've been having minor hot flashes from the Tamoxifen, but they're not too bad.

Mary 

hey all

After today I will only have 3 more treatments.  One would expect a person to be feeling cheery and glad about that but I must confess to being rather down.  This morning we learned that a dear friend of my husband's [and mine too] has just been diagnoised with lung cancer.  We don't know anymore details [stage or type] but when I looked on the NCI website, it was pretty scary [flashbacks to December when my prospective surgeon was saying there was "something" on my liver that needed to be checked out]. Our friend is a relatively young guy, not yet 50, with a darling 1 year old grandson but alas, he has always been a smoker.  No comment on the smoking but makes me glad that my husband quit ten years ago this year.

Anyrate, I am feeling very glad that all I have is this stupidnon-invasivenon-lifeendingbreastcancer but I am feeling so sad for our friend and his wife.   And I confess that I am feeling a bit scared because when they did the CAT scan on my liver, they found a "spot" on my lung that will need to be checked in a few more months and so of course, with one cancer diagnois under my belt, my brain is going straight to lung cancer and visualizing my monsters as motherless.  And while my logical brain knows darn well the odds of THAT are pretty darned low and if anyone had the slightest reason to think the lung spot was anything, someone would have stuck another needle into me and biopsied the spot just like they biopsied everything else, still:  the emotional brain is scarred and scared right now thanks to One stupidbreastcancer diagnosis.

Hmmm, I'm thinking today may end up being a short day for work.

Hugs to the universe.

jenn

Thanks MariannaHB, for all the kind words.  Yargh, I confess, I also need to go get a colonoscophy when my sessions in the frying pan are done.  The colonoscopy doesn't scare me but the answer to it scares the piss out of me.  And for all the same reasons as you--my kids and feeling so very aware of the fragility of life and that all changes and all ends [thats the Buddhist part of my life].  I have always been very adament about giving my kids a hug and telling them I love then as they leave each day, and I hate parting from my husband without a resolution because just in case, I want each of us to have warm good memories of our last time together and no guilt.  Stil there is the abstract feeling that all is impermanent, that we lack control and that everything changes and there is that feeling post cancer diagnois, right?

It  is sunny out and I think this is as good a day as any to fold on my work and go to engage in some cooking therapy--I volunteered to make 5 or so gallons of granola for our retreat this weekend and I haven't even started.

I hope that your test results go well--you will keep us posted, right.   And have you planned out a reward for yourself when the testing is done?  I think you will need something in addition to your reward for stupidbreastcancer.  On my end, my Parisian reward for making it thorugh my stupidbreastcancer treatment may turn into a trip further north as our friend is Swedish [but living in Switzerland] and I told my husband if he wanted to go visit his friend, we could do that instead.  With 5 tickets to buy, we can't really do both in one year.

Joanneeasiata  I was wondering what I would feel like at the end and to my surprise it was the happiest day of 2010 for me.  So maybe it will be a good experienced for you, however I think with your stage you are probably more worried than I was as you won't know until you get blood work and then when you do get GOOD news from that will you then feel excited about what lies ahead!  I am thinking of you and we are all here to listen whenever you need to talk, your feeling are totally natural...........If I recall Sherri felt the same way......stay strong!............June

Hi all, 

Finished my rads today!! Have been doing a lot of thinking lately, and have talked today  to a cousin of mine who had a terrible prognosis from cancer some years ago.  He said to me, '' welcome to part two of your life''. And he is right. So now, on to the exercise and the eating well and not fretting that this awful thing will return.. am going to SO wake up and smell the roses :-)

YEAH for you Irish47!  How exciting to be through with your rads!  I hope you are doing something extra nice to celebrate.

Only 2 more boosts to go for me.  The last five weeks flew by, but this week sure is dragging.  I sure can't wait to be done and get back to a normal routine and hopefully put all this behind me.

Jenn - so sorry to hear about your friend, I hope he does well with his treatment.  A friend of my husband was diagnosed with leukemia a few months ago and had to stay in the hospital for a month, getting chemo every day. His treatment made mine look like a walk in the park. He had a remarkable recovery and is in remission now.  I hope the best for your friend.  I know what you meant about always fearing a recurrence or a different type of cancer somewhere else in our body.  I am going in for a bone scan next week to rule out mets to the bone.  I can't even begin to think of that being the case, to me it's too horrifying to even contemplate.  I just hope my achy body is a leftover se from chemo.  Good luck with your tests and like Ralli said, I'm sure if the spots on your lung were suspicious, they would have been biopsied right away. 

JoJo - Good luck on Friday, I hope you find peace with your last treamtent.

Congratulations Irish.....YEAH!

Glad to hear your done Kathy and congratulations Irish47. I also will be done on Friday and it has been the longest week ever, two more treatments. My skin cracked under the breast in the boost area this morning. If anyone has had this area crack what treatment to the skin has worked for you? Did it get worse after the treatment was over?

I'm sorry to hear about others still having to have additional tests. Our life has truly been changed by this experience. We now know how it feels to be told we have cancer and how long the treatment takes. When others in our life get the same news we can feel their pain in our souls. I for one will enjoy every single day in my life, especially those that don't include doctors appointments.