JUNE 2011 RADS

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  • LovesChristmas-Barb
    LovesChristmas-Barb Member Posts: 706
    edited July 2011
    Yay mamadog53!!! That's awesome!!Smile Enjoy your vacation in Maine. My husband and I went there for our 25th wedding anniversary eight years ago and it is beautiful!!! We especially loved Acadia National Park...gorgeous!
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  • crog234
    crog234 Member Posts: 801
    edited July 2011

    mamadog53  Congrats on being all done with rads.  I finish up this thursday.  Where abouts in Maine are you headed?  I live in Maine so I was curious.  Have a great vacation..

    Cindy

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  • Huskerkkc
    Huskerkkc Member Posts: 536
    edited July 2011

    Congrats Lynn!! I drive 3 hours a day also; not fun but I am listening to Harry Potter Bk 1 on tape! Saw the final movie Friday in 3D (don't bother; doesn't add that much) and have read all the books . Thought it would be fun to revisit in a differrent format to help pass the time. Had to stop at Starbucks about halfway back because I was getting tired. I had 9 of 33 today. Still a ways to go but so glad to hear from those of you that are done or almost!!

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  • coni111852
    coni111852 Member Posts: 419
    edited July 2011

    One more tomorrow and I'll be done... I'm sooo tired boost where no different for me at all.. My ski is really burned and itchy!

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  • mamadog53
    mamadog53 Member Posts: 61
    edited July 2011

    Cindy, we are going to be staying in the Bar Harbor area.  I think Trenton is the name of the closest town.  My husband's best friend has rented a big house there for the last week in July.  I've never been to that part of the country but I'm so looking forward to it.  We live in Houston, TX and have been having one of the hottest, driest summers ever.  Right now the water in our pool is too hot to even get into.  I'm looking forward to cool air for a change.

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  • crog234
    crog234 Member Posts: 801
    edited July 2011

    Enjoy your trip Lynn.  I live outside of Portland so no wheres near where you are going.

    Cindy

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  • mostlymom
    mostlymom Member Posts: 466
    edited July 2011
    mamadog - congratulations!  doing happy dance for you.  i'm 2/3 of the way through & am well done - way past pink - ouch....  my techs & the rad doc say i'm doing great & taking good care of my skin - i think they believe that's a compliment - i'm just laying there itching & hurting & wondering how i'm going to last 11 more treatments.  Surprised
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  • mammalou
    mammalou Member Posts: 823
    edited July 2011

    8 more to go, Yea!  It is looking pretty ugly and the skin is so tight.  I had to start putting on Domeboro soaks today as I had a skin opening in my arm pit.  I only need to get through 3 more days of the regular RADs and I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I can make it.  After that, I have my 5 boosts and they won't be in my armpit, so that is good. 

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  • suebak
    suebak Member Posts: 199
    edited July 2011

    Woke up feeling very depressed today.  I have been having lower abdomen pain and my stomach seems to be swollen. This has been on and off for about a month now.  I am so afraid that it may be this stupid cancer. I really thought, stage 1, no lymphe node involvemet, not a chance, thought I was just being paranoid. Then I spoke to a woman on Sat, she had same diagnoses 2 years ago. Since then, she has had reoccurence in breast and now has brain mets. I called my pcp yesterday, couldn't be seen till August.  I think I will call my med onco today. Doesn't a pet-scan tell you if the cancer is anywhere else in your body.  I have not had one, have any of you guys? Sorry ladies, my mind is going a mile a minute this morning.

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  • crog234
    crog234 Member Posts: 801
    edited July 2011

    Suebak  So sorry that you are feeling down today.  I don't have answers to your question but wanted you to know that I am thinking of you... I have not had a pet scan either, just cat scans. 

    Cindy

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  • Melanie_Ann
    Melanie_Ann Member Posts: 414
    edited July 2011

    Congrats on being done Lynn! Enjoy your vacation!

    Suebak- I had a PET scan in the beginning of treatments. My Onc said he would schedule one for me in a few months if I wanted to do it. I think if you're having abnormal symptoms then you should give him a call! 

    I have 12 rads left! My skin is holding up well. My armpit is really dark but not red. My breast is red but doesn't hurt that bad. Let's just hope it continues!

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  • duckyb1
    duckyb1 Member Posts: 13,369
    edited July 2011

    Melanie........................glad your doing well......................hope it continues for you.................hugs

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

    suebak....I had a petscan after my diagnosis though my RO was amazed that my MO ordered it with my pathology and that my insurance company paid for it. I would ask your MO about it. It's not a difficult test to have done. You get injected with the radioactive stuff and have to sit quietly for an hour before they scan you. The scan took about 20 minutes. Hopefully, if you had that done, it could give you some answers.

    I hope you feel better soon...

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  • Fitz33
    Fitz33 Member Posts: 243
    edited July 2011

    Only 3 more regular rads and then 7 boosts but my RO said my skin is too red so he's moving up the boosts to begin tomorrow for a couple of days to give some relief to the really red areas.  I look a little like I'm fried on my breast, under my arm and superclavicular area but my skin hasn't broken and I'm just hoping and praying it keeps intact.  When it's over I'll be so happy to have made it I'll do a happy jig.

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  • pejkug3
    pejkug3 Member Posts: 902
    edited July 2011

    I'm a tiny bit pink but the only pain that I have is my ribs!  I'm not sure if it's bone pain or tissue shrinking that's causing the pain.  I feel it the most when I lay on my side or stretch my arm over my head to put on a shirt or something.  I'm leaning toward it being tissue shrinkage...

    I never had any scans...only the chest CT before rads.

    15/33 treatments complete.

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  • mammalou
    mammalou Member Posts: 823
    edited July 2011

    Well, the skin under my arm broke open yesterday, so they moved my boosts up to give my underarm a break. I am bummed.  I almost made it. 

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  • pejkug3
    pejkug3 Member Posts: 902
    edited July 2011

    I'm sorry, Mammalou.  :(

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  • Maybe484
    Maybe484 Member Posts: 170
    edited July 2011

    Very sorry, mammalou.

    Suebak, I hope it's not as serious as you think.  Because the doctors thought my axilla tumor was possibly not my primary, I had an MRI, CT scan, and bone scan prior to my re-excision and SNB.  I don't know if that's my doctors' standard protocol, as I'm an outlier, what with my breast cancer in my armpit.

    Had rad #15 and my RO appointment today.  I am scheduled to have 2 more WBRs and 5 boosts (am on the Canadian protocol).  I discussed with my RO my ambivalence about the boosts to my axilla, as I'm scared of developing LE and I already have had edema post-surgery and late last week and this week post-rads.  She said that cancer treatment is as much an art as it is a science and that she'd be ok with cancelling the boosts, as this is my dominant arm and my axilla has already been radiated (and, I might add, is now looking kind of angry and red).  Now I'm ambivalent about NOT doing the boosts.  What a dilemma.  Any thoughts?

    With these life-altering decisions, you don't know whether you're doing the right thing until it's too late, of course.

    Also, she wants me to begin Femara this week--I'd like to recover a bit from the rads, I think.

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  • pejkug3
    pejkug3 Member Posts: 902
    edited July 2011

    Maybe484 - did you have any positive nodes?  How old are you?

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  • Maybe484
    Maybe484 Member Posts: 170
    edited July 2011

    I'm 54.  0/3 nodes.  The tumor was stage 1, grade 2, 100%ER+, and my oncotype score was an unbelievable zero.  Backstory: I found the tumor while shaving my armpit in Dec., and the first surgeon I saw did a mammo and ultrasound and both he and the radiologist said they thought it was benign (surgeon thought it was a sebaceous cyst and the radiologist an inflamed lymph node).  I waited 3 mos., at which point it had increased in size, and he removed it.  After the path report came back, I saw a team of doctors at a comprehesive bc center, teaching hospital.  My RO did her residency at MD Anderson and I trust her a lot.  But this has thrown me for a loop.

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  • karebear76
    karebear76 Member Posts: 288
    edited July 2011

    4 more boosts to go and I AM DONE!!!! I saw my surgeon today and he asked if I had 4wks or 4 treatments left when I said treatments he said wow, you look good!!! I am red as all get out but I am not pealing or no blisters so that is good.

    Yaaaa for those that are finished and sorr for those having a tough time. 

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  • pejkug3
    pejkug3 Member Posts: 902
    edited July 2011

    I would think that based on those facts about your pathology and the fact that you trust your onc, you'd be ok to skip boosts.  An onco of ZERO?!  Wow.

    I assume you had lumpectomy (do they even do boosts for a MX?) - I've seen people on BCO that had lumpectomy skip boosts.  Not everyone has they in their plan. 

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  • Maybe484
    Maybe484 Member Posts: 170
    edited July 2011

    Yes--I had an excisional biopsy without clean margins and then a re-excisional lumpectomy/SNB--both surgeries in the armpit of my dominant arm.  I'm lucky that my axilla has withstood the higher dosage WBRs as well as it has.

    Congrats to all finished and empathy to all those still undergoing rads.

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  • Fitz33
    Fitz33 Member Posts: 243
    edited July 2011

    Had my first boost today.  They'll be inking me for each boost but it washes off.  When they started the boost it took all of 2 min. or so.  It was a breeze.  Thank God!  So I'll have one more boost tomorrow & then go back to regular rad on Friday. 

    pejkug, I have some pain in my rib area too when I put on a top or anything where I stretch up but the RO nurse said it's caused by the muscles reacting to my arm being in that rad position.  It's like a stretched muscle but it will get better.  Point yours out to the RO or nurse to be sure yours is in the same area. 

    Mommalou, I'm sorry.  It's what we all hate to see happen but it will get better.

    Maybe, I don't understand why they want to give you boosts to the axilla.  I had more nodes taken out than you & my boosts are only going to be to the lumpectomy incision.  I wonder if the Canadian protocol is different than American one?  I'm sorry the decision isn't clear cut for you.

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  • crog234
    crog234 Member Posts: 801
    edited July 2011

    Am having my last boost tomorrow and then I am all done with rads.  I am a little redder since starting the rads.  I am not sore (at least not yet) but once in awhile it does get itchy...  I have been using 100% aloe vera during the day and Aquaphore at night and that seems to have worked good for me.

    Cindy

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  • Maybe484
    Maybe484 Member Posts: 170
    edited July 2011

    Fitz33, the reason the RO had originally recommended 5 boosts to my axilla is because that's where my tumor was--right smack dab in the middle of my armpit!  It is looking worse, epecially at the incision, so maybe that's my sign not to do the boosts?  The nurse looked at my underarm today and said I should be able to make it through my final WBR tomorrow.   I don't feel like celebrating yet, as I'm ambivalent about what to do.  Plus, Femara awaits. . . .

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  • suebak
    suebak Member Posts: 199
    edited July 2011

    Crog234-Horraahh for you.  So happy for you. I am almost there.  Must be such a good feeling

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  • crog234
    crog234 Member Posts: 801
    edited July 2011

    Sue sent you a pm..  Thanks I can't wait till tomorrows session is over with.  How much longer do you have?

    Cindy

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  • mostlymom
    mostlymom Member Posts: 466
    edited July 2011

    I have 1 more full treatment then 8 boosts.  My boob looks like tanned leather - is extremely painful, itchy, and sensitive.  My techs and rad doc say it looks "good"....  I'd hate to see bad!  I haven't been able to go to work for over a week and am having an ongoing pity party.  I'm more than ready for my life to return to whatever new normal it will become.

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited July 2011
    July 20th. Last day of radiation! Much dancing and celebration at my house! Hope you all join me soon!Cool
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