July 2011 rads

Hi 

Var 126- I can totally relate, Im very sorry your missing your cruise - Try to think of it as a reward for getting through all of this when you reschedule on the other end.  I know that is easier said then done.  Travel is my passion and I had several trips that I wanted to do this year.. Now Im just trying to think- when this is all over I am going to try to do some of the trips I have always wanted to do -  I am making a  "Life List" instead of ye ol bucket list... and promising myself that I will get there.

Merillee sounds like were on a pretty close schedule

As a lab rat I too would like to know the aprox shade of red at the 28 treatment mark

any other advice for us?  Also can any one tell me aprox how long the mapping is?

I am still so sore under my arm it hurts to hold it up even a little.

signing in for the July rads.....had my sim/mapping done a couple of days ago and should have a schedule in about a week.

Had a bit of a scare with the baseline mammo.  I asked them to do both breasts as I would be due in September and I won't feel like having a mammo then due to me prolly being like raw hamburger ...they ended up calling me back for a redo because of an enlarged lymph node on my non-cancer side but on ultrasound it looked normal....whew....

Since I'm a tweenie--began my rads on June 27--I'm not sure which thread I belong on, so I'm joining both!  Enjoy the long weekend, all.

The July thread seems to be having some of the same visceral reactions I've had to rads.  I love my RO.  The techs, not so much.  And I have a rhetorical question:  if they're so freaking adamant that SOs not accompany you into the gender-segregated waiting rooms (my DH was not allowed to wait with me on my emotional first day), why do they supply you with the worst ever excuses for hospital gowns (and that's saying a lot, given hospital gowns) and then have you parade in front of everyone else in their privates-exposing gowns and why do they not also gender-segregate their techs?  Sorry for the vent (pun intended). 

ETA: I too have a different rad time each day, and it's difficult to manage.  But I'd go at 5 a.m. one day and 5 p.m. the next if I could avoid the male tech who told me after my first treatment that it wasn't a big deal.

Uh, I'm still undressing right in the rads room.  There is no dressing room at all.  I'm just walked into the 'chamber', told to remove my top and lie on the table.  When they're done, I get dressed right there while the prepare for the next patient.

I've thought about protesting but I figured that since I've had "the temperament of a rattlesnake" all week...I better pipe down and do what the people who are frying me tell me to. 

Besides, my boobs are going to be hanging out once I get on the table anyhow.

But it still irks me.

Thanks for the description Gma Foley. I'm going to stay on top of the cream thing beginning with the first treatment. When I was simmed yesterday, the radiation nurse gave me these two tubes of something called Jean's Cream (mostly aloe vera and vitamin E in it). I'm supposed to put some on after treatment and keep it on up till when I take my shower (so I'll have a clean chest for the next zap). If I run out of the cream, she says she'll give me more.

I also hate creams and lotions on my body, but I think I'm going to hate radiation burns even worse.....so I think I'll use the Jean's cream they gave me.

I'm pleasantly surprised my markers/stickers are OK even when I take a shower. OK I know they should be, they told me I CAN shower and seeing how they told me to buy Ivory or Dove soap they obviously don't expect me to go several weeks without showering (i.e., until I finish my rads), but it's kind of surprising.

Oh wow Gma Foley. I've never heard of X-clair until now (and I should mention I'm a complete ignoramus on this kind of thing anyway) but thanks! You sparked an interesting idea for me. In addition to using the Jean's cream, now that you mention lidocaine, it occurs to me that I have EMLA cream (which I normally use prior to blood draws), which has lidocaine in it, and I also have this prescription cortisone anti-itch cream...maybe I ought to ask my rad onc if I can use eensy weensy amounts of one or both of them mixed in with my Jean's cream if I should feel burny or itchy just in case the Jean's cream alone doesn't quite cut it? Being the Queen of Side Effects, well, you know, hearing my doctors (and assorted BCO members) saying that radiation treatment is "a walk in the park compared to chemo" -- well from how bad chemo worked ME over, that's not really saying much. IMO being hit by a car or jumping off the roof would also probably be a walk in the park compared to chemo! :-O So I'm a little skeptical about hearing how rads are "easy" -- I feel like I have to go in prepared for the worst.

Joining this group. Finished 20 weeks of chemo in may ( A/C 8 weeks followed by 12 of taxol and hercepin). Had a bilateral mastectomy June 2 nd. My radiation mappin is tomorrow July 5 th. My first dose will be July 18 th ( I'm going on vacation till then). I will be getting 33 treatments ( 30 with3 boosts to my mastectomy scar). Last phase of my treatment. Good luck everyone.

I had an xray.  And I'll have an xray each week during rads.

I don't have to have both arms over my head for treatment  - just my left, and it's kinda out to the side with my elbow bent.  It's not too terrible.  But the 75 minutes they had me doing it on the first day of treatment was tough!

5/28 (+ 5 boosts) done!  I got the big speech on skin care today.  The thing I don't understand about all the creams and such is - how can that help?  If the skin is 'missing or gone' rather than sunburned or damaged on the external surface, how is a cream going to do anything except alleivate the itching?

To me, it makes sense to eat better, bulk up on protein and drink a TON of water to heal the body from the inside out.

I'm still doing OMAZ' skin care regimen (without the aloe so far.  I hate aloe) - just in case.  But I don't really understand the science behind why this will work.

I heard one nurse tell another than my armpit looks red.  Hmmm...it's looked like that since surgery in January!

So far, aside from the emotional issues I've struggle with, rads has been uneventful.  I wonder if I'll feel that way next week.... 

Had my first treatment this afternoon.  32 more  to go.  I was the last patient for the afternoon and when they were waiting for me.  Arrived at 4:20 and was walking out the door at 5:00.  I was told it would not take as long tomorrow.