December 2010 Rads

Latte:  Sorry to hear you have bad burns and are in pain.  Don't know if this will make you feel any better, but my doctor said they want to see redness on your skin. . .mine wasn't red at first and I was worried.  I'm plenty red now!

I finished about a week ago and was wondering.  How many times a day are we supposed to put the lotion on? 

i'm finished!!!!!

thanks everyone for your support :-)

the rad onc gave me silverdene cream today - i wasn't allowed to use it during rads, but now it is a good thing to use apparently. i read about it on the internet, and it is for 2nd and 3rd degreee burns. my neck, armpit, cleavage, and under my breast are these raw weeping sore areas - need to get them healed up quickly.

were raincitygirl and i the last ones to finish?

Gosh, Latte - my burns have not been as bad as yours and I'm still whining.   The silvadene cream has worked wonders for me - sure hope it does the same for you.  Keep it glopped on those raw spots for as long and as often as you can.  So glad you're done and can focus on healing.  I have 2 more boosts - Thurs & Fri - then I'm done too.  I glop on the silvadene before I go to bed and just let it stay there all night.  My RO's nurse also gave me some non-stick dressings which I use during the day if I want to put the cream on; i put the non-stick dressing between my skin and my prosthesis so the cream has a chance to soak in.

Hi to everyone - just dropping by to check in.  My last 2 boosts are tomorrow and Friday; so glad to be one the road to done.  Having an oophorectomy on March 11th, the I'm REALLY done.  No recon for now; if I decide to do something, it won't be until after August 2011, so I'll have several months off with only a couple of follow-ups.

Hope everyone is doing well; haven't been able to read back and catch up.

Congratulations to all the sisters who managed to make their way to the end of these treatments.  You are all rock stars!!!!

Teklya

hi Mrs Nice - hope the last tx go well! i am having my ooph on march 16, just after you, and then i plan to be done too :-)

Latte - congrats! Doing the happy dance.

Mrs. Nice - gettng ready to dance for you too.

Anybody else experiencing Radiation Pneumonitis? 

I finished my radiation 01/18/2011. I felt terrific.  Almost back to 100%.  I was thinking, "Wow!  I made it!  Now I'm cruising!"  Well, just 2 weeks later a dry cough and tightness in the lungs appeared. I figured it was just the start of a chest cold and I started a regimen of the typical over the counter meds.  I didn't develop any other cold symptoms like runny nose, congestion, or achiness.  Just this continued tightness, and it was becoming harder to breath deeply - especially exhaling.  Nothing I did was making any change in my condition so yesterday I decided to call in the pros before the start of the weekend.  I stopped at our neighborhood walk-in clinic on the way home from work. (Remember, at this point, I'm not connecting the dots.  I'm still thinking that this is just some stubbon type of cold or bronchitis that normal people get.)  I got there at 7:30pm and they close at 8:00pm. They did an EKG (normal), Blood Ox by finger (98), temp (normal), blood pressure 140/80 (my normal is more like 115/70).  Doc didn't hear anything in the lungs but opted to do a chest xRay.  He thinks it shows some pnemonia in the right lung (won't be read by a radiologist until Monday).  He prescribes predisone and antibiotics and instructs me to follow up with my doctor who I will see on Monday while I'm getting my herceptin therapy.  Today I called my sister, who happens to be an ER nurse for 35 years, and told her about the diagnosis.  It was she who gave me the words Radiation Pneumonitis - first I heard of it.  Now I feel like such a dope.  My radiation was to the entire right breast area.  Is my inability to connect the dots a form of denial?  I don't want to be that patient who every time I get a boo-boo immediately jumps to cancer.  Even cancer survivors can get run-of-the-mill colds.  Anyway, after doing some research this evening and getting a better understanding of the symptoms I think she's right.  The good news is that the clinic's ER Doc ended up prescribing the same drugs needed.  It just looks like the dose will have to be higher and last longer.  I'll call my Radiation Oncologist first thing Monday morning and we'll get on the war path.  So maybe the finish line is a little further away than I thought but I'm taking 3Monstmama's approach.  I won't accept these things that lower my quality of life.  I'll walk farther, I'll walk faster, and I'll show you Big C - that I can't be beat!

jo1955 - We've done all the treatments. Surgery to remove the cancer. Chemo to kill any renegade soldiers. Radiation to lower the risk of recurrence.  NOW we get on the merry go round of dealing with the side effects.  Those treatments will probably lead to more side effects and then more treatments...etc. Just a vicious circle.  I keep hoping that each detour is the last one and I can get off the constant doctor visits and let something more fun occupy my free time.

MVRobbins - I so agree with you.  That is exactly what I am trying to do now.

Sandee - We did have other ailments before cancer and will have them long after cancer.  Doctors need to stop focusing on that one word and treat the whole body. 

Sandee - I tell everyone these days I am a firm believer in mammograms since that is how my tumor was found.  I had missed the year before but will never do it again.

hi spark, glad to hear you finished. I'm just using the silverdene (a very thick layer) and it is amazing how quickly it is working for me. i can see the raw areas getting smaller every day (the peeling is another issue, but that doesn't hurt like the rawness so it bothers me less). i'm one week out from finishing and i think that in a few more days the raw areas will be all healed. i also have the shooting pains after i put the cream, but it usually goes away quickly. in the beginning i was on painkillers all the time, but I'm not taking any anymore. hope you heal soon too.

mrs nice - not sure if i congratulated you on finishing up - so here you go - well done! (in all senses of the term - i told my friends after i finished that i wasn't done, I was well done like a steak!)

Hi Spark

It took me about 2 weeks to finish cooking and start to heal. I feel much better now and am just dealing with  some "chording" in my right arm. Going to ask the Onc on Thursday if I could get a referral to a PT to work that out. 

Congrats - I still have herceptin every 3 weeks until September, an exchange to do and some cosmetic matching...it has been a long year. 

Hi everyone, so happy to see most all of you are finished! I had a fairly hard time, split some lymph node scar open, had a pretty good frying, on the last of 10 more, my dad was dying so I had to stop and came back to finish. Then my Dad died, and I had to go north again, so I just quit 2 days early. Gruelling trip and had to take care of my mother in a wheelchair too, so I came back really beat and sore. Doc said I did look worse than most, so I just quit.

Your assessments of what we go through are so accurate. This whole thing becomes so bizarre, with each treatment risks. And then reading the side effects later, only the doc denying you might have that. I came back with a bad cold. Worried because I had tight lungs before I went up north.

I'm on ABX now. I often wonder what the heck my first mamo after cancer will look like and my lungs too. Just had to see a dentist, two teeth fell apart and I was considering a grafted tooth. He immediately was concerned about my bone loss with the next BIGGY treatment, Femara. Does this end? I don't think so. My Rad docs and techs were great though. I miss them.

Take care and I meant to say, 2 weeks later the boob is healing! OMG what will it be like to be normal for awhile??? And now I need a mole taken off the breast. That mole was painful all along, and I have had melanoma before. This Rad stuff is not friendly to melanoma, so I'm having this mole taken off soon! I do NOT want to worry about it later!

Sweet month ahead to all of you!!