Fall 2013 Rads

Congrats Cider8 and and Kika Im sure it must be such a relief u have enough time to recover hopefully for the holidays.

Rainyday you shoukdnt get pink in d bank if your not receiving radiation in that area. As for starting and getting all itchy and read it happened to me the first few days and somehow Im half way thru 15/30 and no more itchiness just redness but bearable. Nipple area is sore thats for sure but i just put on aquaphor right after radiation and then again in d evening after my shower. Thank God for a long weekend where I live down with a cough and cold and feel so tired other than that kts bearable. My onc does not want me to use emu oil or anything else i dont think we even get it here where i live ive tried asking around for it. So I guess till thw doc gaves me other creams aquaphor it is.

Have a great weekend ladies!

Catching up - Kika2013 and Cider8 - Woohoo! Congrats! Happy Dance! Can't wait to join you gals. Cider8 Can't wait to ring the bell either. I hope you had a big victory celebration and praying the next chapter is wonderful and BC has no place in it!!!

Rainyday13- My mantra is just keep slathering the goop on! The more often the better. So far it is helping my RO also gave me some gel patches which are very soothing.

Hope everyone has a restful weekend so we can be radiant on Monday!!!

I've just completed my 1st week - so 5 treatments down and 28 to go. Since I'm pink already, I use cool cloths 3x/day - followed by Aloe Vera gel and Emu oil. I'm also putting some Aquaphor in between my breasts, as that area is getting a little dry.

Just taking one day at a time and trying to take care of my skin any way I can.

Finished my first 4 tx this week without too many problems. My RO prescribed Topicort with a layer of Vanicream over the top. Anybody familiar with this combination? He also said to just keep cornstarch on all through the day.

Lynn, they explained the tattoos to me as how they line up the lasers and make sure they are in the right place for the rads.

I want to second the nomination for Roar by Katy Perry. That song is in my head all the time!

Cider, I am so happy that you are finished! You have been through way more than most of us and have kept up the fight in such a positive way. PM me if you ever feel like meeting up in STL.

Enjoy the weekend and the extra hour of sleep!

Welcome sarigal55 - you are in the BEST of company.

L2girl - Your description of your radiant booby sounds exactly like mine. I did experience fatigue and that is finally fading. You are so positive and uplifting. What a gem you are.

I have been reading eveyones posts and I am very anxious. I had my "cast" made last week and start radiation later this week. I have very fair skin and chronic hives which have flared up, so not looking forward to more itching. I think I am still in the "is this real" stage. I really appreciate reading the posts and everyone's advise. I suspect I will be asking questions soon. Thanks to all the ladies who post their experiences, it helps.

I'm 8 days post rads and starting to improve. Redness is turning to pink and sore peeling spots under arms and breast is way better. I ran out of Aquaphor so I'm using coconut oil the last few days. It's also not so pleasing consistency but I'm afraid to use any lotions yet.

Such a cute grandbaby. I'm sure that brings joy to you.

Cider congrats on being finished and able to get home.

flaviarose I had read about a study in mice looking at restricting feeding times so I'm interested it's helping you and makes a lot of sense. I'm totally into thinking about how humans would have eaten for most of our existence and certainly snacking every few hours was probably not the model. We have so much to learn about nutrition and diet.

Laughed at the addition to the playlist. This girl certainly is on fire!

Denilynn.... 

I went through chemo & now almost done with rads... chemo was much harder physically,  while rads had/has been much harder emotionally.  Dont beat yourself up! I've heard the same from others as well.... the good news is... we will make it through! And our families will too! Good luck

Lorrie.... only 3 more boosts & you can stick a fork in me, cuz ill be DONE!

Creck, I am at Siteman but go to BJWestCounty location for my treatments. Sounds like we all must get the same hand out about skin care. I'm glad to hear it worked pretty well for you. Congratulations on finishing!

TwoHobbies, so happy to hear that you're all done with rads. What's next for you?

Finished Week Two. I love my team, they are funny, witty, quick and efficient. I love my Rad Onc. I bring him funny questions my friends and husband want to ask, like "Can you bake a potato with the dose I'm getting?", "Does my dose equal to any period of time out in the sun?", "Why is the human body so poorly designed?". He's totally game. Their four machines are named after major parks in CA (Tahoe, Sierra, Yosemite and.... can't remember 4th). My machine is Yosemite and I always give it a pat every day. It's total Star Trek awesome to me watching it rotate around. The drive down is wearing on me a bit, having appointments after sucks too. Work, Rads, Some Other Appointment.... long days. I had skin redness, breast swelling and tenderness on Day One, which has persisted, and now the side under armpit is starting to get red. Dizziness and nausea first couple of days, but that went away although last two days of Week Two, have noticed that coming back? Maybe? Could have been the ton of Halloween candy I ate Thursday. Will see if it persists next week. I've been using a stick of lavender balm. Sort of like a giant lip balm tube. Just rubbing it over the reddening areas. Plus Emu oil and the stuff my Chinese doctor recommended. I dunno. The whole process of having cancer is just so stupid and awful and often just seems so... normal. Life goes on. On to the next thing. I have two cousins that, strangely enough, are also diagnosed (we were all dx within three months of each other). I'm the only one who didn't need chemo. We'll all be on Tamoxifen and it's strange, because I'd rather be on chemo than take that for the next 5 to 10 years.... Bah. Cancer is stupid. Okay, sorry, enough rambling.

JeriGrace, I get "shot" into menopause on Tuesday and then I'll start Anastrzole.  So excited...

Otterlike I guess I can understand you wanting to be done with treatment and not continue for years, but you really don't want chemo.  Trust me!  My friend who is triple negative feels unprotected not taking anything afterward, so that's the other side.  And of course many have to do chemo and tamoxifen. So in the great scheme of things, its not so bad...Plus don't worry about tamoxifen side effects because you may have very few. 

Imamom - I really don't want to look at the awful list. I took Tamoxifen for 15 days before stopping as I start rads tomorrow and wanted to be off it - although both MO and RO say its fine to be on it while doing rads.

I intend starting T again 2 weeks after rads finish if everything is OK and no bad skin reactions as per MO's instructions.

I found the week before my period my PMS was slightly more but exercise helped. Anything else seemed very manageable.

At first I was having trouble sleeping - then I figured that was because if something woke me I would immediately start stressing about T and not go back to sleep. Decided I could wait until the morning to stress and went back to sleep.

So what I am saying is stress less, feel protected and good - and it will be easier to deal with T. Lots of people take it without major side effects.

Teachersbc1-Congratulations! You are free! Enjoy!

haha..

This morning I came downstairs belting out "this boob is on fire"... my hubby started singing along "her boob is on fire"

@Bounce - He said the beams don't generate enough "heat" really to actually bake anything, even boil water. Different sort of energy, I guess. The sun thing is also UV and different as well, so he was going to think about that one, but said it didn't really equate in the same way. The question my husband had "Why is the human body so poorly designed?", my doctor said he was actually going to bring this to his colleagues and see if they could come up with a "good answer".

Good point about the Tamoxifen, to not read into it ahead of time. I have read good things as well, that people lose weight, feel better than they did before, etc. Both sides. The one big thing is that I cannot take my Wellbutrin, which I was taking for libido and sexual function, and a side effect that it did help my mood. So, sighing about that. But I stopped a few months ago, to give myself time to titrate off and thus far, seems okay.

You can't feel the beams while it's happening and really, it's only on for a few seconds to maybe 15 seconds per shot. I have three beams on the top side, and two underside. Most of you being on that table will be the adjustments made by your team to put you into place each time. The staying totally still isn't that bad either. I think it's a total of 10-15 minutes, if that, with a couple of minutes of being alone with the machine. My team is totally professional about it and very quick and efficient. They can see you and hear you the whole time and you can speak to them if needed.

I pretend I'm in a futuristic medical pod, especially when it starts rotating around me, and imagine that like in Star Trek, it's just easily zapping the disease away.

Don't worry about reacting emotionally! You have cancer; cry, laugh, curse, whatever you need in the moment.

I won't say good luck tomorrow, because really it's not about luck, is it!! Just focus on whatever you need to get you through it and know it might even get pretty "normal" to be going there. I dare say, I might even miss my team afterwards! Hugs! And feel free to PM (private message) me, if you like!