July 2011 rads

I am very very red and my armpit is getting very sore. I can see the signs of my first blister appearing. I am hoping to avoid this as I only have 4 more treatments to my chest area and then next week I have my boosts to the scar area only.  I know that my skin looks great for how far I am into treatment, but it still annoys me when they say it looks great. It is red, hot, and getting sore.  and then they tell me that it will start to peel in about a week.  This is not normal and I wish there was a little more sensitivity that even if I am doing/looking great, it is a little disconcerning to have a bright red chest that is sore.

That is my rant for the day.   

Finished my last regular treatment today and start the first of five boosts tomorrow.  Have been experiencing some nausea and a lot of lack of appetite.  Funny I never had much of that during chemo and now didn't expect it during RADs.  My breast and upper chest are very red, no peeling or blisters.  Sensations are some prickley burning from time to time under my breast and under my arm and a lot of itching.  Don't know how much worse it will be.  Just so tired of it all.  I'm driving two hours each way every day.  Always have a driver or a passenger for company with me.  My friends have stepped up -- been just unbelievable.  My husband will be going tomorrow, on Thursday, a longer day because I have Herceptin that day and next Monday which will be the last, not the last trip I'm sure, but the last Boost. I am ready.

We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or fight like hell. ~Lance Armstrong

LindaJanette:  So glad that you finally got something that helps your pain.  I am mystified at how my RO does not prescribe anything.  Like you, I realized only late in my treatments that I had to scream if I wanted anything at all.  Why does it have to be that way?  Anyway, thanks for advising newer rad patients to scream earlier than we did.  You have helped many people tonight.

Thanks, LindaJanette.  The champagne is chilling and I am ready to celebrate.  Don't forget.  You toast me and I will toast you on Friday.  So glad that the lidocaine is working for you.  

The advice about changing doctors if you are unhappy is excellent.  Hingsight is always 20/20, but I wish now I had changed rad centers early on.  That being said, the techs were great, but there is only so much they can do.  A different RO would have made my rad experience much better. 

Thanks Barb.  I am so happy that you and I finished today.  It is a great feeling.  

LindaJanette:  Here's hoping everything goes well with you through Friday and beyond. 

I know I whined and vented a lot.  Thanks to everyone for putting up with me.  I honestly do not know how I would have gotten through rads without you.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Well, well well. No improvement to the second degree burns I showed the rads nurse and one of the doctors on Monday morning, so my own RO got to see them in full force for herself for today, although as it happens, apparently whatever the nurse and other doc had told her made her decide to tell my MO, and today with "confirmation" (my RO seeing it herself as compared to secondhand information from that nurse and other doctor), the decision is:

NO MORE RADS. I "only" had 25/33 but I'm done. My skin just wasn't up to it, and RO says now my MO wants me to recover from the rads so she can put me on the Faslodex.

RO gave me these saline and other dressings and said twice a day (morning and afternoon) I should lie down with them covering the burned areas for half an hour at a time, plus a tube of silver sulfadiazine cream -- when I don't have the dressings on I should have that cream on instead, and if I run out they'll call in more to my pharmacist. And, she wants to see me again next Thursday to see how I'm healing. OK......that works.  

Elizabeth and Barb -- you're finished -- and you were somehow able to get through ALL the treatments you were originally scheduled for? Wow... congratulations!! Oh, and Elizabeth, don't worry about the whining -- I did plenty of that myself! LOL

GigiL -- why not try the gel strips the nurse gave you? They sound OK to me, anyway, I'd at least try them if I was in your position.

LindaJanette -- yeah, lidocaine cream is only good for 3-4 hours tops. I discovered that over the weekend when I used my EMLA cream (a lidocaine-prilocaine mix actually) on my own radiation burns. Got another form of relief for pain and itching of rads burns from the nurse I saw on Monday: she suggested I take both benadryl and ibuprofen. Benadryl helps the itching, ibuprofen helps the pain/inflammation. Of course, you have to take THOSE every 4 hours too though. But I tried it and it does help, so I'm still going to take them in addition to applying the soothing bandages and using the silver sulfadiazine cream.

Congrats to Barb and Elizabeth for finishing.  Looks like this group is winding down.  Lena sorry you had so many problems but it must be a relief to know the healing can begin.  What is Faslodex?

Gigi.  Do you think it was the creams that irritated or just that the rads are finally biulding up?  I would try the gel strips for a day or two and see if they help.  If not ask for something else.  In my experience there is nothing like silvadine cream for burns

Had 27/33 today. Tomorrow is my last treatment to the supraclavicle and them I only have 5 more boost to the tumor.  Almost there.  Hang in there with me Gigi.

28/28 today,I'm done!!

Lena-I've been taking ibuprofen & benadryl for the last 2 weeks & I also think it helps.

Gigil-Try the gel sheets. It's the only thing that gives me relief. I have small bisters, nothing larger than a pea & it actually heals them. Since I had BMX without recon, I am using a large gel sheet & covering both sides of my chest where I am recieving chest wall radiation. I use the dressing for a couple of days & my skin gets better(even during rads). I took a 2 day break from the gel dressing & blisters returned. It sounds like you are dealing with a smaller area. I don't refridgerate mine although I heard I could. They feel plenty cold going on at room temp.

Glad to get this chapter finished. Now back to the MO...............I really hope my Tamoxifen/lupron/AI chapter goes as well as RADS did for me........at least my chest won't itch & I won't have to go everyday. (OK I'm secretly dreading it).

Pejkug- Im good two more -- even more I am so proud of all of us, some a couple weeks ahead,

some a couple of weeks back, some of us making it through today and in the next few days.

 really feeling the love for all of you 

Thanks from the bottom of my heart for all of your help ladies---Its official we are survivors...

ps will try benedryl and advil Thanks again what an itcy person I would be without you,

Hey anybody Dr said about 4-5 days getting a little worse after finishing and then uphill from there? Soud right? 

My doctor did say that it would get worse for 4 to 5 days after finishing and then start to improve and that is what happened with me. My doctor is different in that she has you get the WBRs and then gives you a two week break before the boosts. I finshed the WBRs on July 28th and the next week my skin got worse and the soreness increased and then it rapidly started to improve. I started my boosts on August 15th and the rad techs were amazed at how well my skin looked. I finished my boosts yesterday and the only pink I have left is the boost area. It is feeling a bit stingy and burning a little but definitely bearable. Actually the thing that's bothering me the most right is the rib under my breast...it's feeling sore but the pain comes and goes.

GiGi-Looks like I will be a day behind you in treatment now.  When I went for my treatment today they told me they were closing the dept early tomorrow so they could use the area to set up cots for employees who will need to stay through the storm.  Asked if I could come in before I started work but since I am off tomorrow because my mom is here visiting we decided just to cancel.  Yeah for being done with the whole breast.

Linda-Janet They say the effects of rads can keep getting worst for up to 2 weeks but most of the girls seem to say the healing starts in about a week.

Gaaah! My radiation burns seem to be getting worse even with the silver whatchamacallit cream and those soothing bandages. I could swear I have 15+ new blisters! And I haven't been zapped since LAST Friday?!?!?!?!

Elizabeth, relish every second of life before you start the Arimidex. That stuff will just about make you sorry you were ever even born. The only thing that's worse than aromatase inhibitors (I've done them ALL) is cytotoxic chemotherapy. Which brings me to....

Jan -- Faslodex is an estrogen blocker which works similarly to Tamoxifen (i.e., it blocks estrogen receptors on tumor cells so the estrogen can't get in and feed the tumor), but it doesn't carry the same risk of blood clots as Tamoxifen does. 

Polly, when you finish your rads, I can promise you will DEFINITELY find that you have better things to do than drive several hours a day to and from rads! 

LindaJanette:  Congratulations!  Yes, we all must definitely stay in touch.  We can talk about our hormone therapy experiences and continue to support each other as only we can.