After Radiation

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PamCA
PamCA Member Posts: 41
edited June 2014 in Managing Side Effects of Breast Cancer and Its Treatment

Hello,

I will be starting radiation (after chemo) in about 3 weeks.  My husband and I are trying to plan a short (4 day) vacation after it is over, which I think will be the last week in July.   Can any of you who have had radiation tell me if I will likely feel good enough to go on vacation the first week in August?  We are planning to rent a house on a lake, go swimming, sightsee a little, etc.

I've heard radiation causes fatigue, but I don't know how bad it is or how long it lasts.

Thanks for yoru help. 

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  • Cindyl
    Cindyl Member Posts: 1,194
    edited June 2012

    I'm about 8 days out from rads.  I can think of nothing more appealing then a relaxing vacation.  You may not want to plan on swimming (my RO wants me to wait at least a month given the amount of skin breakdown I had) You may not feel like driving for miles, but if someone else will do most of the driving and you don't plan to hike for miles... I think you'd be fine.

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  • msjag
    msjag Member Posts: 416
    edited June 2012

     ALthough,Sun and swimming were against my rad onc's instructions, relaxing sounds perfect.  I know some others were very fatigued after rads, I'm high energy, so it just allowed me to sleep great at night!!  Whatever you decide, congrats on thinking past rads, your almost there!!

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  • doxie
    doxie Member Posts: 1,455
    edited June 2012

    A vacation after rads sounds lovely!  You may be tired, but napping is allowed on vacations, right?  

    As others have said, no swimming nor sun on radiated area.  I had blistering which didn't pop, but if it had I might have needed RO supervision.  The blistering was at its worst 1 week after I'd finished.  I needed to wear two sports bras to jog because of the tenderness in my breast, and I'm small breasted.   Still am tender over 2 months out.  

    Good luck with rads. 

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  • thruthefire
    thruthefire Member Posts: 2
    edited June 2012

    I just finished rads 3 weeks ago. As long as you are willing to adapt to whatever your body is able to tolerate, you should go for it!  Sun and swimming would not be a good idea but lounging around and low key sightseeing would be fine.  The fatigue was not a huge issue for me during the day but I was more than ready to go to bed a couple of hours earlier than normal for the first 2 weeks following rads.  I had to stop wearing a bra 3 weeks into rads because of the irritation and couldn't start wearing one till 2 weeks after it was over.  Picking out clothes was quite a challenge. So that's another thing to consider but being creative and adaptable is what gets us through, right?

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