Summer 2012 RADS HANG OUT

Bummer of a day for me. I completed rad 16 of 36 last Friday. Last night I developed extreme chills and severe body aches. My radiation breast is also swollen and very red and itchy. My doc is concerned I have an infection, so she put me on antibiotics and I am on a break from radiation until at least Thursday, possibly longer. Bums me out because I was feeling so good until now. Now I feel crappy and my treatment is delayed. Has anyone else experienced this?

Diane:  No, not yet, but am bummed--see my previous post.  

Karen: I'm sorry for your delay due to the broken machine. You are not being a baby! I had the same thing happen about 2 weeks ago due to a broken machine. They called me just as I was leaving the house to go to treatment. I guess the good news is that neither of us was in the machine when it broke!  I don't have anything as important as a wedding on my calendar but I was frustrated with the treatments being dragged out yet another day. I can only imagine how you must feel when you have a big family event coming up. Sometimes you just want to say 'waaaaahhhh'.  I had #24 today. So I'll be finishing right around the same time as you. Let's hope the next couple weeks go fast and no more machine problems.  

Dianefights, I didn't have an infection, but I know that it is not uncommon. We had blood tests every 2 weeks to check for infection. It must be scary, but I'm sure it will clear up promptly with antibiotics and you'll be back on schedule.

Kjiberty. Who knew the damn machines break down so often. I got that call one day too....fortunately they fixed it within hours and I went in later in the day. I too have heard you can double up sometimes if need be...you may want to ask.



My rad office is closed on labor day....forgot about that...ugh drags it out a little but I will also enjoy the break.



I'm going for 16/36 today....area feels itchy and was bothering me last night...just sensitive. Man it really does a job on your skin...makes me worry about how they will ever reconstruct and make be whole again.

Karen & Dianne - It's like you're running a marathon and just as you get to the end, they move the finish line.  Not fair.  Hang in there!

Marcia111:   Saw that you had a consult with RO and you were requesting a list of  questions.... Did you receive them?  If you will share them, it will be great as I have a consult mid Sept. 

Did you select an RO?  How are you doing?

Good news!  Got it done today and have an extra one on Saturday, so I will be done on Friday 9/7.  Decided to politely whine.  I am so excited!  Who would have thought a radiation treatment would get me so excited!

Actually, the missed treatment was done today at 3:30.  Saturday's will bump it up to being done on 9/7, instead of 9/10.  Gives me three extra days of healing before my son's wedding on the 15th. 

Great news Karen!

Enjoy the wedding!

My throat is getting better but now I have hives front and back. One week today I finished and now using steroid cream and antihistamine tablets.

I haven't posted in awhile, but have been following each of your experiences.  I'll be at the halfway point after today 17/33 treatments.  So far I'm doing pretty good with the side effects.  Minimal redness of the skin and no real soreness.  I've been trying to exercise at least 5 days a week (1 hour at the gym doing eliptical and weights or 1 hour of walking) and I think that's really helping with my fatigue.  Am working full-time, but am able to do so from home during my treatments, which I think helps considerably with keeping my energy level in check.  

I've been using Miaderm 3 times per day and I think it's helping.  Believe it or not, none of the nurses in the radiation area had heard of it (although my RO uses it during the winter on his hands).  They're all watching to see how I do with it to determine if they might recommend it to other patients in the future.  My RO indicated he normally doesn't recommend it due to the cost, but certainly believes in it's benefits.

I am sooooo looking forward to completed this last round of treatment.  It's been quite a ride over the past 5 months. Then, I plan to take a break for a couple of months before starting reconstruction.  Still investigating my options, however, I'm strongly considering a new procedure that utilizes 3 sessions of fat grafting to help restore your radiated tissue, followed by expanders and implants.  There are some women on this forum who seem to be having good success with this approach.