November 2011 Rads

Hi everyone,

I've been reading your posts after posting a little bit in the Fall/Winter. I had my radiation ex (28) in Dec and Jan but I think that your group meets my needs, so I'm...,back. I have a question. Is it normal to have most days be ones where you want to stay in bed the entire day? Fatigue, I guess. I just started a very light walking program, hoping that the exercise might help. What has your experience been post-chemo and post-radiation? Best to everyone, Lee

Flautalee - I do know that it is hard after treatment because everyone thinks you should be back to "normal" and it is not like that at all. It takes some time to come to terms with everything you have gone through and to discover what your new normal truely is. sometimes after the anxiety of chemo and rads not to mention everything that goes with it, people get depressed. What you are describing sounds more like depression than the fatigue from treatment, but I am not a doctor. If you are taking any medication, sometimes the side effects can cause the feelings you are having. In either case, I would tell your doctor how you are feeling and see what their suggestion is. Keep us posted...We are here for you.

Kdayjay---Thank you so much for responding to my question. I think also that part of my "fatigue" is depression. I'm on meds for this and am also seeing a therapist who is wonderful. But I guess I don't have the right cocktail of depression and anxiety meds yet.. Unfortunately, because of all of this, one of the pharmacists knows me by name. LOL! She's very sweet. I asked her about the fatigue and the fact that I only feel normal if I take a 12 hour real Pseudoephidrine and 200 mg Cafeine pill in the AM and in the afternoon another 200 mg Caffeine pill. She said this OK if it makes it possible for me to function. She said the profound fatigue is normal. Fortunately, I normally have low blood pressure--I've noticed getting higher since I started the real Pseudofed. (When I had my mastectomy last July, I wasn't permitted any additional pain medication because my BP was about 80/50. So I just got up and walked around for a while and my BP came up.) I have to say that I woke up feeling good for the first time in a while. I started a very gentle walking program 2 days ago. Today I went around our circle 5 times. It has trees in the middle that my children loved to climb on until they got to big. 11 times around is one mile. Tomorrow I will aim for 6 times around the circle. Thank you all for being behind me, Lee

flautalee - my friend that had chemo + rads is still battling fatigue many months later (she had rads a couple months before me). I didn't have that debilitating, fatigue but I did struggle to get back into shape for a good 6-8 weeks, even without having had any chemo at all. My RO said that he only radiated a "clinically insignificant" amount of my lungs, but let me tell you, it took me a lot longer than normal to get my wind back this winter. It's so hard to be patient with this process and allow our bodies time to heal, eh? Maybe by "clinically insigificant," he meant that I wouldn't end up in the ER with radiation pneumonitis.

I still have some pretty significant swelling (edema) and my skin still looks weird (darker + peau d'orange) on that side. My MO told me that the edema should go down within the year but that my skin may remain discolored even longer than that. I can live with these SEs - it still beats having my skin peeling off from rads. That breast is still a bit sore and tender, though, which makes me dread my next mammo.   

flautalee - I didn't have chemo, I finished rads on Dec 14th and I've always been pretty active, despite two knee replacements. But there are still days when I feel wiped out and it's an effort to get moving. But I think if we keep pushing through it, we'll find ourselves more able to move on. It can get discouraging, though. Hang in there. Are those trees budding in this warm weather?

Rn4babies good news about the margins and nodes. You sound in good spirits with everything you have been through! Keeping you in my thoughts.

rn4babies - that sounds like a pretty big incision but CLEAR NODES and CLEAR MARGINS??!! That is definitely a cause for celebration!!! How did you find out so quickly about the clear margins? I thought they made us wait for a final path report on that? That is SUCH good news!!!! What a relief!!

I can't imagine waiting until April 26th to find out if you need more than rads. Can you get your hands on your oncotype score before then at least? As for your reluctance to take Tamox, I can totaly relate because I was super reluctant on my rads and put it off 2 months. Here's hoping that I don't regret that decision and lose that breast. I will sleep a lot easier after a clear mammo in June. 

I read all the Hunger Games books, too, and I cannot wait to see the movie. I would have gone this weekend but the girl I'm seeing now wants to wait until she reads the book, though. All weekend long, though, I kept reading things on Facebook about how good the movie is, and how it's not a disappointment after reading the book. That will be a great outing for you tonight. 

Thanks for the update,

Nat 

That is really long but I guess it's good if that's how your BS got those clean margins. I remember with mine they also sent it across the street to Pathology at the Hillman while I was still in the OR, but they made me wait until the final report before they were able to confirm that I would not need re-excision. And I remember thinking that the wait was excruciating, even though I had specifically asked my BS for wider margins so I wouldn't have to be cut twice. Hey, it's nice that you got to see your brother even though it wasn't the happiest of occasions for him to be flying home. I hope you don't get stuck in any Pittsburgh traffic tomorrow (i.e., not driving in between 6-9am or driving out between 3:30-6pm).

Congrats on the clear mammo! Here is hoping we can all post such good news.

Major phew!!! Congratulations!!!

Well, for the mammo-guided wire placement, I had them give me drugs (Ativan) so I was actually pretty chill about the whole thing. I don't think I can get anyone to prescribe me a pill every time I need a mammo, though. 

 I am doing fine, thank you, Joan. Feeling very strong and fit again, despite some little aches and pains that I can luckily mostly ignore. Which is a good thing because I'll be racing in Hong Kong in July

It's a pain in the butt about the swelling because I still can't fit into some of my bras and tops, but really that's such a small thing to complain about. I will be very relieved and able to fully relax into my Spring/Summer after that mammo in June.