Summer 2012 RADS HANG OUT

Hi ladies!  Hi Kjiberty!  I know some of you from other forums.  I have been lurking on the June Rads but just noticed this one.  I will be starting rads end of august/early september.  I just finished my last dose of chemo 2 days ago, yay!  I have surgery (lumpectomy and sentinal node dissection, hopefully) on July 23rd.  I am putting this thread on my favorites.  I dont have much to contribute yet regardign rads but will follow you all closely as you go through it.  Best wishes to those already into the treatments.

I will be starting Rads in about 2 weeks.  I will be a summer rad baby!  My simulation is scheduled for next Tuesday.  Yes, I'm a little nervous, but feel good about it overall.  I found out my risk of local recurrence is something like 40% and this will reduce my risk to almost 10%.  I will not be doing Chemo, will be doing hormone therapy, I had right sided mastectomy in May and will be having left sided mastectomy in September as preventative after more was found out about my right breast cancer.  

I have a question for those out there with Thyroid issues.  I'm Hyperthyroid....could rads make me MORE hyperthyroid?  Any knowledge my way would be greatly appreciated.   I wonder about the fatigue, my system tends to be a bit sensitive, so I hope it's not too bad.  

Butterfly my SIL has a thyroid problem & had BC 5 years ago.  She went through 6 weeks of RADS.  I don't think she got anymore tired than anyone else here.  Anymore symptoms.  There was a thread a few years back about whether you had hypothyroidism before you were DX with BC.  I don't know where the thread got to on here but it might have some discussion about what your wondering.  After reading much & I'm sure others will agree everyone is different some ride the norm, others either do better or worse than the norm.  You might want to talk to a Endocrinologist if you don't have one already.  Just a thought.  I hope you breeze through with the best of them!

Thanks!

Hello Summer RADS ladies.  I just finished 25 treatments last Monday.  I did not have any SEs until about 13-15.  I was pretty tired - but it came in "waves" and I could "push through" if I wanted to ... although I will say that I seemed to pay for it the next day if I did push through. I usually rested a lot over the weekend, so Monday/Tuesdays were actually pretty normal days for me, but I was pretty tired by Friday.  And this cycle started pretty early on.  So, by the last two weeks, I just worked 1/2 days on Thursday and Friday.  I was lucky I had this flexibility. 

I am a competitive runner and was able to run 50 miles/week through all treatment (but I ran ~70 miles/week before).  I only worked 1/2 days near the end of treatment, but I had a lawn chair in my office and took about 3 cat-naps at the beginning of treatment.   Skin started to break down about the 4th week -- but really was not intolerable, and I never had to take any breaks (though they offered me 2 days break after my skin started to break down).

You can do it ladies, it is not easy, but it is doable!!  (be sure to let your nurses know at the first sign of skin problems, and make sure you rest if/when you need to -- your priority is taking care of yourself right now). 

Chiming in.....can I hang here? So glad you started this thread! I'll be finished with Taxol in mid August......rads for sure, but don't have a starting date yet....I'm hoping to take a mini vacation in between my last Taxol and beginning of rads.

I've heard about the fatigue with rads too. I most concerned with skin breakdown and burns, as my skin is really sensitive and fair. I'm even using cream now beforehand to make sure the skin is supple and ready to go.

jpmomof3 -- I am just lucky that I did not have to endure chemo, and that I was in really good shape going into radiation.  Walking is great ... it can turn into running really quickly ;-)  Please ask me any questions you would like when you get there ... and check out out May 2012 gang, lots of people had "good" (ok, not bad) experiences there - and they were a funny, amazing, group to go through this with!

jpmomof3 - really?  wow.  I forgot to tell you that one of my prime motivators to run every day, even when I woke up really tired, was that my RO told me about her "other" patients that were able to run through treatment -- a little "competitiveness" coming out .  I did have to slow down, but I was just so happy to be running!  I will be sending you good thoughts and lot's of extra energy!! 

BL & JP hats off to the running!  The only running I will be doing is "Running Around" from bed to shower to work to home to shower to RADS to home to bed to shower to work.....Well you get the picture!  I work nights & have been out almost 6 weeks now.  My BRCA came back negative & I am off to finish Starting the whole Simulation on Monday.  I am sure I will start RADS next week.  Not sure how many days either 16 or 33 as I am gonna do a Trial.  I'll know Monday.  I hope you all don't mind me popping in here as there are not many of us at the DCIS June July thread....but then I am working 6 nights out of 7 my first week back! So I know I will be out of it!  So tired before I barely get started after being away so long & am used to sleeping nights again!

IndigoMont11 - I think each center differs on the tattoo issue.  My center did not give me a choice, though perhaps I could have refused.  I decided that I was okay with the the dots if it meant the beam accuracy was really high, but I know some women who really did not want the tattoos.  Very personal choice, but I don't know if every center will treat you if you refuse the tattoos.  You should ask if you have a concern.  They do fade over time (somehow I got tattooed without knowing it during my wire placement and those have faded).  I now have a total of 7 tattoo dots.  If I were to do it again, I would ask them to make them as small as possible while still be able to locate them.  I was lucky that the two on the middle of my chest did come out really small, but the two on my sides are a little bigger than they probably needed to be.  So far rads for me has been a breeze compared to chemo, but some women seem to have anxiety over the rads.  Everyone is different!

Kjiberty, just a regular skin cream....nothing special yet!

Hi guys. 7 rads down, only 26 to go. No side effects yet. Most fearful of the swallowing problems, since they are radiating my neck as well. The good news is, my hair is oming back. I ended chemo in may...very excited to now have eyebrows!!!

Thanks for creating this supportive group.

Cheers.

Indigo - long story but I got IDC in 2008. Had lumpectomy, chemo, and right before rads they found DCIS in same bad breast. We decided to do BMX, get rid of the worry. Well 3 1/2 years later, a new lump in the same place on my reconstrcted breast which turns out to be malignant. They took out the implant and the lump and now I'm doing reads. I don't think I'll do more chemo at the time as the stats are not too compeling.