January 2011 Rads

#24 done - coming in to the home stretch!

lynda-my DH called to see how it felt to not have to drive to NB today for tx.  It is kinda strange being at work this afternoon. At least I can slow down in using my sick time.

Congrats to Barbcard and Sherryc on finishing!  Awesome!  To anyone else I may have missed as well!

 I am one week out from full breast rads and my last boost was last Friday - already my skin is beginning to look and feel better.  It is SO nice to see and sense visible healing.  While I am glad not to make the trek to the hospital every day, it feels a little weird to be doing "nothing," so to speak. 

Thanks for the support and hugs, everyone.

 Julie

Hi All:)  I have been "Lurking" this site and don't normally join in but I have found the information this group has given me priceless. I had most of my concerns relieved by reading this. (I wish I had found this site while I was doing chemo and before surgery).   And for that I thank you all for sharing your personal journey.   I started rads Jan 20 so today was #4 of #31. I do however have a question about radiation.  So many are afraid of mammograms etc in part because of the radiation.  So then why do they give us radiation to kill cancer cells?  Can't seem to wrap my head around that one....

Hi All...

I started rads last Thursday...

My rad onc gave me a presciption for biafine...

#2 of 25 today. I've been using Cetaphil moisturizing cream three or four times a day since last week, which was what my doctor's nurse had recommended.  About two hours after I came home from #1 yesterday, I started having hot and itchy sensations on that side, especially under my breast.  Went to take a look and it was definitely pinker than it was in the morning.  So I put on some aloe and also some calendula-aloe ointment that I got at a health food store...actually billed as baby cream for diaper rash, but whatever.  That helped.  Today when I got home from #2 I put the aloe on immediately, and didn't have the pinkness, and less of the itchiness.  I'm still using the Cetaphil too. 

Later in the afternoon, I had an appointment with one of my other doctors unrelated to the cancer. My HMO prints out a reminder on every co-pay receipt of any upcoming appointments, tests you're supposed to have, immunizations due etc.  The receptionist pulled mine off the computer and said "Oh, something screwed up here....it says you have all these appointments at the same time every day for weeks, and it isn't even with a doctor, it's with a machine!"   

tamos, what I understood from my doctor and the education program at my clinic is that cancer cells are especially sensitive to radiation because they are devoting so much of their energy to spreading and multiplying, which normal cells are not.  The radiation affects normal cells too, but they have the strength to recover, but the cancer cells don't and will die.  The level of radiation we're getting is what experience has shown is enough to kill the cancer cells without doing permanent damage to too many of the normal cells. 

The question about whether mammograms expose us to too much radiation is related to the risk versus the benefit.  If 1 out of a million women gets cancer because of a mammogram, but 10,000 women have a cancer discovered and treated because of a mammogram, that's a risk most women will take. I just made those numbers up, so don't quote them, but the point is the number of cancers that will be detected because of a mammogram is much higher than the numbers caused.  But that's also why routine mammograms aren't recommended for 25-year-olds, even though there are a few 25-year-old women on this board with breast cancer -- the number of cancers that will be detected is much lower, so it doesn't seem worth the risk to give every 25-year-old the extra bit of radiation.  Does that make sense?  It's good that people are cautious about radiation now -- when my mom was a teenager she got X-rays for mild acne, and even when my older sisters were kids there was an X-ray machine at the shoe store they used to see how well the kids' feet fit the shoes.  Those were totally unnecessary exposures where the risk was much higher than the benefit.  Mammograms and dental X-rays are worth it for most of us. 

Hello, all. I'm just starting this radiation thing - next Monday - so I just made it into this January thread. LOL But mine will be to the neck and down to the clavicle. Anyone else have (or had) anything similar? I'll be having 6 weeks, at 5 days a week, which seems pretty standard? Last question, is fatigue inevitable? I'm planning to do the radiation in the afternoons, so I can go to the office each morning, leave mid-afternoon, and then go home thereafter.



Congratulations to all those who have finished their treatments!

I am wondering what the rads fatigue will be like after chemo ....

Raincitygirl - thanks, that's what I'm hoping for.  Chemo fatigue is pretty heavy...hoping if I managed it I can manage the rads

Yes, that is how many I have, Blosson.  Today I did #24, so far, so good

Thanks Raincity girl! It's good to know I'm not in this alone. You're more than half way through.  Way to go!

Ginger - I don't even know about a BC group - I would like to though.  I will be there in the morning and can ask about it and then email.  I don't know what time you go, but I am usually home by about 11:15 and can let you know.

Another breast infection sucks, I bet that is why you are so dragging...be better.

(((Hugs)))

suepen, do you have your rads 5/week typically?  Nice to have your boob unchanged, you must be lubing the boob quite well