July 2011 rads

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  • pejkug3
    pejkug3 Member Posts: 902
    edited July 2011

    <<PSU222>>  I feel your pain and indignation.  This sucks!

    I'm using Omaz's skin care regimen (mostly):

    Miaderm right after treatment, before I even leave the building.  Then I can run errands or whatever and I know I'm lubed up.  :)  (Omaz used 100% pure Fruit of the Earth brand aloe at this point in her regime...)

    Vitamin E cream (2-4 hours later) - Fruit of the Earth brand

    Miaderm (2-4 hours later)

    Progressive Emu Cream (2-4 hours later)  - this also has vitamin E in it

    Aquaphor (before bed)

    The Emu oil is a bit slimy and the Aquaphor is thick.  I *love* the Miaderm but it's spendy.  Everything (except the miaderm) can be purchased on Amazon.com.  I can link you to Omaz's recommended brands if you'd like.  I'm lazy right now.  ;)

    I plan on focusing on Miaderm, Emu oil and Vitamin E cream.  Aloe just doesn't do it for me.  Not even for regular sunburns. 

    We'll get through this together.  If all goes as planned, I finish on AUgust 12...the countdown is on.  How many treatments do you have?  (I have 33 - 28 regular + 5 boosts)

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  • pejkug3
    pejkug3 Member Posts: 902
    edited July 2011

    I forgot to add, I don't use anything for 4 hours before rads.  I won't even shower if here isn't a four  hour window.

    And I use Tom's of Mine deodorant (approved by my rads office)

    None of my skin creams are approved by my rads office...but I do see little canisters of the Vitamin E cream and tubes of Aquaphor in the treatment room.

    I wonder why some offices nix creams before the skin damage appears?  Honestly, it makes the most sense to me to drink lots of water and eat a ton of protein to heal from the inside out.  The skin isn't as much "burned" as it is "missing".  Rads damages the skin faster than it can rebuild.  No cream is going to fix that!  But the creams can alleviate some of the discomfort that results.  ANd I'm a big wimp when it comes to pain...

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  • Elizabeth1889
    Elizabeth1889 Member Posts: 1,036
    edited July 2011

    I agree with everyone here who says they truly dislike rads.  None of my previous treatments were fun, but they did not engender the fear and anger in me that rads do.  A lot of it has to do with feeling so vulnerable lying on that hard table with strangers gawking at you.  I thought that I had at least lucked out by getting all female techs.  Today there was a male tech.  Thanks to all of you for the understanding that will get me through this.

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  • Merilee
    Merilee Member Posts: 3,047
    edited July 2011

    Wow this is making me a bit leary. Is anyone having an ok time with rads?

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  • Nannyof2
    Nannyof2 Member Posts: 24
    edited July 2011

    avoid the sun !!! You may get a rad burn - presunning won't make it any better - I am done 20 rounds of rads just yesterday - got a rad burn but am using hydrocortisone cream and a baby powder cornstarch mixture ...........it is itcy but lose clothing and cream helps

    NO sun !!

    good luck it is all very doable

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  • Nannyof2
    Nannyof2 Member Posts: 24
    edited July 2011

    Hi - I just finished my round of rads (yesterday) and my feeling is once you get that far and have surgery and chemo behind you - this is a cake walk (considering) - As for vulnerability - I have been exposed to soooooooooo many poeple by now anyway what the heck!! I lay there take my mind somewhere fun and remind myself the RADS are doing their job -

    good luck with all those in rads or just starting - I got a burn but it is managable and it really did not happen until going into the third week - and I am tired but I took advantage of rest times in the afternoons - I am looking forward to getting back to a normal life style again

    cheerz ladies it is doable!!Smile

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  • Maybe484
    Maybe484 Member Posts: 170
    edited July 2011

    I hope everyone is enjoying their rad-free weekend.  I thought "rad" meant "radical," as in "spectacular," until recently.

    Yesterday they were playing a Motown Mix in the rad room.  There is just something fundamentally wrong about getting zapped to the tune of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On."  

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  • PSU222
    PSU222 Member Posts: 127
    edited July 2011

    Maybe484  -   you are right, that is so wrong.  I dread Monday. 

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  • pejkug3
    pejkug3 Member Posts: 902
    edited July 2011

    LOL @ Maybe.  Too FUnny!

    I'm dreading Monday, too.  I started on 6/28 (Tuesday) - so my past two weeks have been 4 days of rads.  And a three day weekend.

    My nipple is sensitive and my node biopsy incision is tender.  But nothing major.  No skin changes that I notice.

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  • Trinity789
    Trinity789 Member Posts: 55
    edited July 2011

    Hello,

    My dry run is 7/15/11 and I am due to start 7/18/11. I am nervous. I am very fair and am concerned and burning an sores but I know it will go by quickly. with chemo you would have a bad week then be feeling better. I am concerned about the fatigue. It sounds like it make take a month or so to be feeling back to normal. Whatever that means...I hear it can take about 6months to feel like we did pre cancer...

    Now I just need to buy a new bra. They say nothing with an under wire and some cream.

    Take care,

    Trin

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  • sherryhuttRS
    sherryhuttRS Member Posts: 20
    edited July 2011

    I know what you mean about being a number and not a person.

    I had 4 months of chemo and surgery. The pathology came back negative for both the SNB and the tumor itself, so I guess I should be happy. I was called to make my portacath appt. for removal. So I called back and was told to be NPO and bring a driver. They numbed me up and pulled it out, OMG. First off who made the freakin mistake about my appt being just lidocaine, and not conscious sedaton like it was to put it in. Then I had my simulation appt, first I could not find a parking place, then the elevators were not working, and finally they were running behind so I had to wait an hour and half. I read that sometimes they can use markers instead of tatoos, but I had both. I could not believe the pain from those freakin tatoos all 6 of them. I felt like a lab rat instead of a person. Changes need to be made about how we are treated for bc, maybe they assume with everything we go through bc patients can handle anything.

    I keep telling my self just 6 weeks of torture left, and then I can take control of my body.

    Sherry

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  • LindaJanette
    LindaJanette Member Posts: 71
    edited July 2011

    Ladies trying to figure out which emu cream to order anyone have names

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  • pejkug3
    pejkug3 Member Posts: 902
    edited July 2011

    I'm using Progressive Emu Oil.  It's an Emu Oil/Vit E combo from Amazon.com

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  • Maybe484
    Maybe484 Member Posts: 170
    edited July 2011

    I too will be going into my first full week--rad #9--on Mon.  Wondering what to expect.

    I have a strange question for anyone who may know:  I have a bit of an alligator skin or cracked eggshell look but I can't figure out whether it's from all of the cream (Udderly Smooth) being caked on or if it's dry skin? 

    I'm pink--particularly in my underarm area.  My incision area was the same for the re-excision and SNB: my axilla.  The site doesn't hurt much more than after surgery, fortunately.  Is anyone else getting sharp random pains?  I have those and then the place where I was injected for the SNB is tingly. 

    I'll be thinking of all of you tomorrow.

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  • PSU222
    PSU222 Member Posts: 127
    edited July 2011

    This weekend went by in a flash.   Here comes Monday and having to deal with those treatments.  I need to put myself in a better place or I am in big trouble.  

    Maybe484**   No pink yet.  I have only had a few treatments so far.  As for those random pains, I have had them since my surgery.

    Hope everyone has a wonderful week. 

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  • LovesChristmas-Barb
    LovesChristmas-Barb Member Posts: 706
    edited July 2011
    maybe484...I've been getting sharp random pains too and my RO told me that was completely normal, especially for the incision sites. I just had no. 9 on Friday with no. 10 coming up tomorrow. I haven't had the alligator skin look but I am turning pink and have some red pimply-looking spots.
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  • Maybe484
    Maybe484 Member Posts: 170
    edited July 2011

    I'm thinking/hoping that what I'm seeing is the caked-on cream I'm using.  I hope.  I have to be super careful when showering, as I have markings and no tape, and on weekends, especially, I have to be careful.   I am dying to have a REAL shower! 

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  • pejkug3
    pejkug3 Member Posts: 902
    edited July 2011

    Maybe484 - I don't really have alligator skin, but I did think my axilla was peeling at one point.  But it was just caked up creams.  I'm trying to be a bit more sparing with the creams now.  I can't imagine not being able to shower!  I got 5 tattoos and they mark a black line across the top of my breast to line up treatment fields.  That line is always gone by the next day after using the creams, sweating ans showering.  They've never told me that it needed to stay on and I figure that for as much as I'm paying them, they can draw a new line everyday.  ;)

    One tech draws a modest dotted line.  The other draws a heavy black line.  Ugh.

    My nipple is tender but I don't notice any skin response so far.  I've also noticed that it's always "headlights on" on the rads side.  Lovely. 

    Good luck this week ladies.  I hate that any of us have to do this but I'm thankful to have someone to share the journey with.

    I get deep fried at 1pm tomorrow...

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  • GmaFoley
    GmaFoley Member Posts: 7,091
    edited July 2011

    Good luck this week ladies - I am praying everything goes smoothly with no reactions for you!

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  • pejkug3
    pejkug3 Member Posts: 902
    edited July 2011

    Thanks, GmaFoley!

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  • Merilee
    Merilee Member Posts: 3,047
    edited July 2011

    I have a set of cds called healing yourself with light. I will be using them to do my rads. You can  them see them on this link and see what they are if you are interested. I think it is important to not think of the rad beams as the enemy but as your   helper/healer. I had to make a similar paradigm shift going into chemo. I like the island of regeneration that the set helps you create in your mind.

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  • Maybe484
    Maybe484 Member Posts: 170
    edited July 2011

    I DO get in the shower--lol--it's just that I usually like very warm, long showers, and if I stay in as long as I'd like, with water as warm as I'd like, all my marks (and there are many) would be erased and I'd have to go through the whole simulation again, as I have no tattoos or tape.  They still have to remark me each and every day.

    I decided that the eggshell look was indeed my own overexuberance with creams.  My underarm and upper arm peeled some from my second surgery, and I think I have some aftermath of that too.

    Whatever gets you through the night, as John Lennon said.  I have difficulty visualizing the beam as beneficient--I prefer a sci fi motif--it's the mad scientist or whatever I have to go beyond to get to the real light.  Or, more pragmatically, a necessary step in my treatment.   Honestly, I have  difficulty doing creative visualization of an extended kind when I'm in the room--my thoughts are fleeting.  At times, I'm on a carnival ride.  Woo hoo!

    Happy day, all.

    ETA: Thanks for the recommendation of the CD--the recordings do sound like they would be helpful for some.  I know I'm aberrant--and I actually get a kick out of some of the thoughts I've had in that room.  I'm trying to write them all down.

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  • juliet62
    juliet62 Member Posts: 3,412
    edited July 2011

    maybe84 glad i'm not the only one with thoughts,  last week it struck me how much the machine when rotating looked like a dalek!

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  • Elizabeth1889
    Elizabeth1889 Member Posts: 1,036
    edited July 2011

    For me, it is a case of going totally numb and not thinking about anything at all.  I joke to myself that I have to "turn myself off" while I am in the rads room.  

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  • LovesChristmas-Barb
    LovesChristmas-Barb Member Posts: 706
    edited July 2011

    My RO told me that it would help if I held my breath during the zaps so that it's less likely to hit my heart so I'm busy concentrating on keeping track of each zap so I know when to hold my breath. Crazy.

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  • Mimidi
    Mimidi Member Posts: 231
    edited July 2011

    Sitting here at home waiting for the time to go for my treatment.  I had three last week and this will be my first full week.  So far I have no complaints about the way I have been treated by my RO or the techs.  They have all been so encouraging.  I am not saying I am happy about getting radiation.  I have not been happy since Nov. 11, 2010 when I got the call telling me I had BC.  I wonder if I will ever be happy again.

    Barb58 I was not told to hold my breath. 

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  • Merilee
    Merilee Member Posts: 3,047
    edited July 2011

    I asked about holding my breath and they said no.

    I know what you mean when you say I wonder if I will ever be happy again. Cancer robs us of our peace of mind, it is one of the hardest parts for me too. For me I have to really work at not worrying about the other shoe to drop.

    My mantra when my mind goes there is " It is my intention to be in total health now" Then I think of something that  gives me a very positive emotion. This is work and it comes up for me several times a day. It is PTSD

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  • Lena
    Lena Member Posts: 1,036
    edited July 2011

    OK thank you all for scaring the crap out of me. I had just talked myself into thinking if I used my Jeans cream starting day one, I'd be "mostly OK" but tired and maybe a little sore in the "area."

    Film Friday the 15th, Rads start Monday the 18th. 

    ...and I'm doing this why?!?!!? 

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  • Mimidi
    Mimidi Member Posts: 231
    edited July 2011

    Lena I am scared to death about burning too.  Today while I was waiting for the doctor to see me I saw a basket full of  Aquaphor samples on the counter.  I started to get me a handful of them but decided to wait until I was given some.  Came home today and and rubbed down good with aloe.  Not pink or red yet.

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  • LovesChristmas-Barb
    LovesChristmas-Barb Member Posts: 706
    edited July 2011
    Lena...I'm sorry if we're scaring you. I'm a bit tired and a little pink but it's all manageable and doable so far. They wouldn't give me the lotion until last week so I got a late start but it does help when I put it on.
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