May 2011 Radiation

Rohanna - the nurses and everyone in our center seems so concerned that I get through this with the least amount of stress possible - they went and had "a talk" the the rad tech i had yesterday and today I didn't have him - but brought my relaxation therapist along and saw that tech in the hallway - he was so rude to me that she is writing the head RO.... All I hear is that this is hard for me and they need to be more sensitve to my needs (so not used to all this attention) ... anyway noone is allowed back in what they call the "Quiet healing waiting room" we can watch the fishies and the waterfall outside. It is so nice that we have a place to prepare and try to de-stress.

Had 19/25 with bolus today. Skin went down fast after 18. None of the things I had been  using would work. Got some Califora at Whole Foods today and it took the burn right out. So soothing.

In 2 1/2 hours, I'll be having my last radiation treatment - I can't wait!!!!!!

I only see the person ahead of me  coming out, ther is never a wait time to linger in a waiting rm.  the guy ahead of me is very young and does not change to a gown so prob doing head,neck area. He brings in his own CD and rocks the place.  Love it!

rohanna  I love the "cookies on a conveyor belt" I agree , there  isnt even time to get half of a conversation going, like "how was your weekend" Today i think i see the doc  gonna ask about the arthritis. Was waxing the boat last evening and now can barely move my arm this morning, maybe gonna try some of the glucosamine- chondrotin.

Beam me up!

Gabby- the center where I go doesn't allow family members in the changing room area, which is nice. There are usually only a few people in the main waiting room. I usually talk to a woman whose husband has brain cancer. This makes me VERY grateful about my own situation.She just needs someone to talk to because this is really hard on her as a caregiver.

As for watching the Casey Anthony trial on tv, I live in Orlando, so we have had coverage out the wazoo.

Car berry- you are the poster child for a can do attitude in your treatment for breast cancer!!!

Washing/waxing the car and boat, plus biking to radiation...I will definitely not tell my DH about you!

If I biked to radiation(it is about 13 miles), I would have to go directly to the cardiac unit, or at least a shower!

Sig2130- congratulations on this being your last rad today!!! Also Leslye - congrats on graduating to boosts!

I hope boosts are not as invasive as reg rads. My skin is bright red now. I thought about drawing an octagon around it and writing STOP on it.

GmaFoley- I hope they got rid of the rude tech. You don't need that!

Tina,

I wonder if that was part of my hole opening issue....I don't think so...but those "dissolving" sutures always give me problems....they don't ever dissolve!! lol

Slg, WOO HOO!!  Congrats on being done.

Sagina,

I'm so glad you're done.  I know the cough thing must be driving you nuts.  My lungs are really "tight" but they tell me its not the rads....oh really?  What else is it then?  

I finished 17 of 28 today.  I get up everyday and do an hour of cardio, and today I dressed to hit the gym after rads (weight training).  I am not kidding, as I was on the table getting zapped I felt my energy bleed out of me....I was totally POOPED by the time I got to my vehicle.

I don't know why Rads is so much more exhausting to me than chemo and/or surgery....but it IS.  But you know, now that I think about it, I'm never more exhausted than after a day on the beach, or out in the sun.....maybe it's just the way I respond to it....I dunno. 

I really need to clean house today....but I'm thinking about eating a skinny cow ice cream sandwhich and reading JR Ward's CRAVE.  lol

Congrats to all the ladies who are completing rads this week I'm a little envious!

I'm done 12/33 today. the nurse told me that my skin is beginning to break down (maybe that is why it's been so itchy?)

She said it's very common to breakdown between 12-15 treatments...and it's obiouvs (to her) that I must have had a bad sunburn there as a kid. She then said, "It's only going to get worse from here."  So that has me down.

3 of my scratch off tickets have won "a free ticket" and one of my scratch offs I won $4. So ...4 "winners" out of 12 tickets isn't too bad I guess!

Congrats Sagina, I'm right behind you girlfriend............4 more boosts and I'm done....would have been tomorrow, but they added 3 more..............I have been making Ricotta cookies for my grandson, so when I do I always take some into the techs.........when I'm done I am going to take them some great danish from a bakery in my area (my rads are 9am), and ordered a large tray of hoagies for them for their lunch that day.  they have been wonderful to me, and honestly I will miss them (not rads(, although I have done great. .....my RO calls me her "poster child" for blue eyed blonde radiation ladies.............Now I hpe I'm as lucky with the Femara................If I'm not I will stop it.....I already tol my RO who I share everything with...............she asked me to please at least try it for her and nit give up after coming so far, and doing so well.................just don't want all the SE.........told her I'd rather have a few good years without taking the drug........then 10 more and be miserable all the time...........It's all about quality of life, and a life of constant pain is not quality.............call me a quitter, but with all this, lymphedema, and then all the SE's of AI's.......I say ENOUGH

I'm doing the happy dance - done with radiation!!!!  I had a total of 28 - my clavicle looks like I got a bad sunburn, and my armpit is tanned (first time I've ever had a tan), slightly itchy on the burn, but other than that I'm good.  SO glad to be done with the daily trips to the hospital!!!

InTwoPlaces - I'm having 8 boosts too so you're not alone there. Total of 36 treatments.

Yea I can do wverything but type now that I am wrapped on the right arm for lymphedema.......cancer the gift that keeps on giving.                 the word was pretty...not petty

My RO never told me that I was going to get boosts, so I was a little surprised when the Tech's told me today.

I'm holding up very well, a little red but not bad at all. I also have a lot of energy and I'm starting to feel like "my old self".

I had all my Axil nodes removed, but no signs of Lymphedema yet. Knock on wood.....

I had number 20 of my 38 radiation treatments today. The whole area, esp. my armpit area is inflamed and swollen. I use my creams religiously, but it's painful. Is it supposed to be this way?

Hey I have to say I can't complain about rads.  I don't have fatigue like I did with chemo.  The end of taxol about did me in.  I'm just not starting to be burned and I have 6 more rads to go, so hopefully it won't be too bad.  When they took of a wonky sticker today it took my hide off with it, so it is breaking down, but I can't feel anything because of my surgery.   It'll suck later bo be numb, but at this point it is a perk.  I can't wait to be done!!   I've won $2 and 3 tickets. lol

slg2130 , I am jealous your armpit is getting radiation.  My doctor said he didn't do that that it seems there is enough radiation that gets to the area that there are rarely reoccurences in the armpit lymph area.    You see in my info that I didn't have many nodes out and almost half were positive, so I would have loved to have had the pit zapped good.   Further under my arm on my side did get radiation though.  Who knows.  You can only put faith in their hands and hope for the best

The doctor told me to put hydrocortizone cream on the area.  Has anyone else been told to do that?   I use my emu oil, miaderm, aquaphor, and now hc cream.  

I asked my RO why rads affected some women a lot, and others not so much.  He made a good point and said not all of us are receiving the same amount of radiation (which is also a factor in why some women's skin breaks down/blisters and others have no problems.)

My neighbor had breast radiation and told me it was a cake walk, no fatigue at all...today when I questioned her further I found she received rads only to her chest wall, two zaps a day and she said they weren't more than 5 seconds each.

So that got me to thinking....What is your rads schedule?  How many zaps are ya gettin?  How long do they last and where are they?

I get 6 zaps total. 

1st and 2nd with bolus has the zapper's "eye" at 11 o'clock (to my left)..the first zap is 13 seconds (counting one one-thousand, two-one thousand etc, the second is 7 seconds).  Skin/super clav

3rd and 4th zaps with bolus and the zapper sits at 5 o'clock lasting 13 seconds and 5 seconds respectively. (full chest/axilla)

5th and 6th are without bolus, the eye is at 12 o'clock and the zaps are 13 seconds and 3 seconds (full chest and clavicle)

My tx field covers from mid neck (side) down to where the rib sticks out, a hand's width from the bottom of the breast, and covers the entire side of my body..armpit to mid-rib.

There are four primary targets: chest wall, skin, axilla, and super clav.

So, what's in your rads plan?