December 2011 Rad

#5 done. Woo Hoo. I like talking to the other ladies whie waiting in the "women's" waiting room, but many of them are more than half way done as well. We talk about how whimpy men are, and there's only a wall between us. LOL. Ladies, you're almost done! Hang in there. I have the nasty cough from the nasty cold I had. Today, I had heart palpitations all day long and was having MANY PVCs. Had to go to the family doc and have an EKG done, and hoping I'm not ER bound... I will go to sleep and it will be gone tomorrow.

ellen, i agree with you that chemo was way easier.  it sounds weird to say that, but this burn and then returning every day to re-burn the burn is driving me nuts.  i find myself gritting my teeth constantly just thinking about it.  i have 7 more full-breast and then 5 boots, so at least you and i are nearing the end.  it sucks, though.  i hope you get some releif soon.  one day at a time.

#18 for me today. Yesterday RO and I decided that I should get the boosts. I was borderline on whatever criteria they use. But I told him, I don't ever, ever want to have to come back here when I'm done. So we decided on 5 boosts.



My finish date was Fri 13th. Now it is the 20th.



Skin starting to itch and getting a rectangle of red on back shoulder blade area. Asked and they said that is the backside of the field.

#6 for me. Hope you all had some relief today...

#24 for me today, but not before seeing the RO who made some changes because my skin is not doing well at all.  I now possess Cuticerin gauze, wound pads, UltraKlenz wound cleanser and six tubes of Aquaphor.  For today and tomorrow's treatment, I am getting regular radiation instead of electron beam because my skin can't take any more of the concentrated shallow rads.  He told me it will probably get worse because of the delayed reaction.  I must say the Cuticerin gave me some instant relief.  And I'll be taking pain meds at night. 

It's a toss-up as to which is worse, radiation or chemo.

But it's almost over. 

I had tx #14 today. I'll be halfway through tomorrow! So far, my skin is doing great. It's a little pink but isn't dry or itchy. I've been washing with Dove unscented soap and haven't used any creams or lotions.



I'm not quite as exhausted as I was before Christmas. I think having two long weekends helped.



Does anyone else here suffer from insomnia? I haven't had a good night's sleep in months. I took Melatonin last night but it didn't do anything for me. Anyone else have any other (preferably non-pharmaceutical) suggestions?

michelle, i'm so sorry your skin is not doing well.  do you have 6 more treatments?  i certainly hope the meds and the special gauze help you heal quickly.  at least with chemo, we got 3 weeks to get better.  with rads, it's just constant and it gets a little worse each time.  i'm not a fan!  please keep us posted on how you're doing.

michele, i use benedryl for sleep and it works well for me.  maybe try two instead of one?  i don't know.  i can't believe you're not even using lotion or creams and you've passed 14 tx's.  you're very blessed indeed! 

michelle, only one more is good news!  i'm actually looking forward to the boosts because they won't be on the really bad place on my chest.  it's obviously not as bad as yours, though.  thinking about your chest being worse than mine makes me really sad for you.  

i'll be listening for your celebrating!! 

Michelleo13: Sleep has been my big problem, too. I just read some research saying insomnia affects 80% of Bc patients during treatment and 60% of us long term. My medical oncologist says it has to do with the estrogen levels going wonky on us, and LuvRVing's comment about it starting at menopause corresponds with that. Estrogen must be a good sleep drug, if lacking it has us lying awake so much.

Are you taking anything for it now? Whatever you do, don't take Ativan, Valium, or Xanax for it, since the benzodiazapenes are a bear for addiction and stop working very quickly unless you increase the dose all the time. (*Holds hand up miserably as an example of this*) I am in the painful process of de-addicting myself from Ativan to eliminte it entirely, but not a moment too soon, because it can lead to long-term brain problems. All stuff I learned too late.

Hi, Maureen: In my case, which I think is typical, the boost is five extra days at the end of treatment where they focus a tight beam just on the mastectomy scar. That's apparently a really likely place for recurrence, so they want to give it a few extra zaps.

Chef127 - my tattoos are used to line me up properly to the machine.  I have one on each side of my chest a bit under each armpit, and a couple others that are used for alignment.   Yours might be different depending on where you are being radiated.  And everyone's angles are different - I have 11 different angles and thus 11 zaps of varying length from 2 seconds to 30 seconds.  Because of my anatomy, the angles are very narrow as the RO is doing everything possible to avoid heart, lung and thyroid damage.  He is also minimizing the amount of radiation absorbed by my ribcage. 

There is a reason why many of these doctors are also PhD's in Physics or have Medical Physicists with PhDs on staff.

I have # 11 today skin holding up only using aloe vera Gel put it on @ least 3 x a day for some reason im not having boosts Ill have to ask Why. should be half way tommorow  having 25 rads in total Sorry for you ladies getting burned and sore hope you feel better real soon.

#25 tomorrow!!! Boosts next week. Am so excited!

Michelle013, I have also had success with "Sleepytime" tea or something similar.  Good luck getting those Zzzzs!

No treatment today as I was struck with one of the worst migraines in recent memory (it's done now though, thank goodness for Maxalt MLT). Between the holidays and the delay today, it feels like this process is taking forever. Next week starts five days a week so it should start moving along more quickly soon.  #10 is tomorrow and so far, very few SEs.  (I have been told no creams or lotions unless RO gives 'em to me.  So I use Dove and Tom's deodorant and leave it at that.)