January 2012 rads

Hi ladies.  I see all of us are tolerating this stuff pretty well.  I do my last boost tomorrow!  Yeah!  I will be done.  I will be thinking about all of you and checking back in.  Have lots going on in my life right now so don't know how often I'll get to "talk" to you.  But everyone please hang in there!  It will get better.  My skin is burnt and underneath the breast the skin is peeling away.  After the last boost tomorrow I will be able to slather the silverdene and all my other lotions all over my breast without worrying about all the markings!  I am so ready!

Hope you all have a great day tomorrow!

HUGS!

Good Morning,

I had my first boost today and it was sooo quick and easy. I got home at 3:00, had a bite to eat and took a nap.........zzzzzzzz........ got up at around 10 feeling like some one or thing kicked the s--t out of me. I was exhausted and had stomach cramps. Sick?? Rad Boost?? I finally got up at 5 am and I feel OK. Thats a 12 hour nap. Anyone else have this happen? I know if I ask the nurse or techs at the center they'll never blame the tx on that or anything else. Except for the burns. 

RockyM, Congrats for escaping your treatment unscaved. Amazing. One more milestone. 

ANAbanana, You are cute, but you need to slow down....LOL

Well, the count down begins for the rest of us. Hang in and hang tough.

Was told yesterday I am not getting boosts.. I thought I had 25 whole breast then 3 boosts, but no I am having 28 whole breast, the last three are only doing the breast not the clavicle or underarm, I asked why most get boosts and I do not, was told it depends on where tumor was,  size, type etc.

Itchy this morning... sitting here doing saline soak before I go for my treatment. Two weeks from today will be the first day I will not have to drive to treatment oh my what will I do with my day. Look forward to getting back to work and will as soon as skin has healed enough not to hurt under arm, Going back part time to start, then working up to full..

Have a fantastic day ladies

Hello ladies!  I am officially done!  Yippee!  Now it's back to work without having to drive back and forth to the big city.  So looking forward to it!  Skin is really red and peeling but now I can put all my lotions and stuff all over my breast without worrying about where I'm putting it!  Don't have to worry about the markings anymore.  Yeah!  Today when I came out of the radiation room, they sounded a bell and presented me with a diploma that stated that I had finished the prescribed treatment.  Had my name on it and the date and everything.  I wasn't expecting that but really but a nice touch on everything!

Hope you all do well.

Hugs!

#23 of 25 done.The color of my skin is a dark chestnut, but amazingly it doesn't hurt and is not peeling. I think I am doing great, but it looks awful tho'! I am naked most of the day and keep applying aloe vera. Aquaphore and emu oil make my skin hotter and red (??????) My armpit however is a mess, it looks something like the Gran Canyon, it has all kind of deep open sores where the skin has peel away, it hurts all the time. You can see the expose red meat of my armpit, even the techs said "ow ow ow ow" when I have to lift my arm . I am applying lycodine and I began to take pain killers as well. I am keeping my arm elevated with a fan circulating air and it's helping, the problem is when I get the armpit wet while showering the wounds open up again.This is going to be a loooooong weekend!

Have two more boosts to go, then I'm done (after lumpectomy, 5 months of chemo and 35 days of radiation).  Has the nipple on anyone else's radiated breast enlarged with radiation?  While my breast is only slightly swollen and darkened, my nipple is HUGE now - not swollen or puffy, just HUGE - like three or four times bigger).  Everyone at hospital seems to put me off when I ask them.  Thanks for any input.

Thanks for responding.  I guess it's true that misery loves company.  As long as it's nothing out of the ordinary, I can live with it.  It's just like you said, other than my skin breaking down at one point during rads, they pretty much ignored everything else.  Well, except for scolding me when my marks wore off.  It's not like I scrubbed them off, but the one lady was SO annoyed with me.  I felt like a kid in the principal's office. 

Chef127, Justina, Kayce234.

The nipple will go back to normal. well at least my left side did 6 years ago.  I am doing rads on my right side right now.  7 Boosts left.  My skin reacted the same way this time as last. Horrible blisters and swollen EVERYTHING!, and those awful ZING pains as i call them,  If they lasted for more than a few seconds i think i would die, they hurt so much!  But it does all go back to normal.  I can't remember how long it took though.  Hang in there everyone, we can do it!

7 more 7 more 7 more. thats all i keep telling myself.

Jo

bojo,

Thanx for the ressurance. I'm going to wait to see a PS to have my right boob reduced.  I really can't tell if there is swelling on the rad side or not.

I get the zing pains like you said they are short and stabbing. After todays tx I'll b at Luckey 7 as well.

AnnAlive, The worst is over????? The boosts are short and quick and the rest of the breast can heal.  We seem to all be doing well. 

Hang in there everyone!!  We're almost there.

I, too, have the zings.  It's rough when they come on while I am helping a student out at the reference desk... But I just tell them I had bc and am now doing daily radiation and they understand (I work at an academic library with college students).  I think they are busy being bedazzled by my blue wig...

Ossa - I also have TE and also RO removed the bolus after 20 rads. I "drained" my blisters. There were 3 tiny ones, I sterilized a needle and the area, I made a tiny whole, removed the liquid, and applied silvadene. I  didn't want the blisters to open by themselves and have an open wound on my breast. My foob is really dark and itchy. Monday is my last one. Have a wonderful weekend!

As I teach my students to say "All done.. finished!"  Glad this is over, but has not been the worst part of my year. 

The area where the boosters were is pretty red, but it is not as bad as the spot on my neck.  That one is healing, starting to peel now.  I was finally prescribed silvedene and that helps.  But aloe vera is the most soothing. I have been walking around with a little container of aloe chunks. It is sticky, but it dries quickly.

Chef, it is interesting how cream recommendations differ.  My RO was totally for Emu Oil and aquaphor. She just told me to make sure not to put it on before I came in for treatment.  She said the skin needed to be clean. 

I was told that the skin dryness may be permanent.  They said to expect symptoms for 4 to 6 weeks.  Fatiguen never became an issue for me, just off and on. 

Hang in there everyone who is almost done. Time goes really fast in the end! 

Bgirl, thanks for the info. It is a long weekend here, but I may drop in on my rad doc come Tuesday if it is still bad.

Thanks Ossa. You all will be done before you know it and then it just healing time!

  I did my share of suntanning in the 70's .  I used to mix coke with baby oil to get a better tan. I think it would have been better to not use anything!   The last time I used that I ended up with blisters on my face and a sunburn so bad it put me in the hospital.  Talk about no knowledge!  

6 more then 5 boosts. My breast looked completely normal until about three weeks into the rads. Now the tumor bed area is very dark, the breast is very tanned, the hair follicles have darkened and stand out, and the crease under my 36 dd boob is itchy, dark and sensitive. I was prepped for boosts yesterday and have a circle of blue marker now around the scar/tumor bed. I am using aquaphor and 99% aloe vera. I hope i dont blister!