Spring 2014 Rads

thanks for responding Girlstrong,  my Mom had a partial mastectomy in November and then another surgery to remove another 5cm tumor under the arm ...lymph nodes were clear.  Due to her age the MO did not feel she'd fare well with chemo so her team has decided that the 30 shots of rads would be proactive...I'm very worried about her though - she's a pretty tough cookie but I don't know how she'll deal with the fatigue...I mean she's 87 after all.  

How's everything going with you? 

Mirka:  I do not know what to say as your mom is much older than me and I cannot imagine what it may be like for her.  She might just breeze through it, who knows.  Having your support, both emotionally and physically should help.  I see some very elderly women and men receiving radiation and they have their family there to help.  They often appear to be in better spirits than all the others.  I am sure your mom will just be so grateful to have you by her side.

For me, I have not experienced any fatigue so far and I have finished 16/25.

Anyone continuing to take hormone therapy while having RADs? Just wondered, I never see it mentioned. I am taking Anastrozole and my ONC said to continue with rads, take a multi vitamin and 300 UI D3.

what do you do on Hormone therapy?

My MO said HT after rads also...she said I could start now if I was in a hurry, but she prefers after, so it is easier to decipher the cause of  any SE's that may come up.

Mirka, I hope your Mom does okay with rads. If it's any help, my 83 yr old aunt was Dx'd with lymphoma about the same time I was, with BC. She did chemo and rads and is now recovering. She had a rough time with chemo, but not so much with rads. I know everyone is different, but I hope she recovers okay.

Have a great week, ladies!

I'm still on the look out for my new hair....please hurry!:)

To flagirl: I just started Anastrozole a week ago. Will begin radiation treatment - 30 sessions - in a week. My MO recommended I start HT now and continue through radiation.

I just finished #17/25 and am starting to get seriously red with a lot of very tiny red spots.  A bit itchy, otherwise, looks worse than it feels at this point.  No fatigue and I hope to start work at the end of next week when I finish rads.  Sometimes I feel a bit run down . . .hard to describe.  Like I am about to come down with something, but never do. Wonder if this is from the treatment.  

I just had my fourth of 33 radiation treatments. My breast has been very inflamed and painful over the past weekend - not the skin but all the internal tissues. My radiation oncologist says this will probably clear up in about a week though.

My drive for radiation treatment is an hour each way, so for that reason alone, I'll be extremely relieved when this is all over with.

Hi all - well, tomorrow is my "fitting and tattoo" day - not entirely sure what to expect with the "fitting" part.....I'm sure this is quite normal but I am scheduled for a CT scan - they want to see how close my heart is to my chest wall since this is on my left breast so they don't radiate my heart - I agreed, thought that was a good idea!!!!!  Really like my rads oncologist - he treated my dad when he had lung cancer (very sadly, dad did not make it) so I feel like dad is around!

I feel lucky - recovery from my second lumpectomy was a little easier this time than the first and I think that's because I did not have to do the needle placement before surgery - what a "mother load" of pain that was!  I did notice though that the skin around the incision area and nipple are really dry so using bath oil - that did not happen last time.

Hugs,

Donna

Hi Donna

I just had my fitting and markings a few weeks ago. "Fitting" for me was when they laid me on the ct table, I was laying on a bag filled with small beads or something. When they had me positioned exactly how they wanted, they vacuumed the air out of that bag and then had a perfect mold for me to use to insure that each time I was in the exact same position. I was slightly uncomfortable with the position ( having both hands above my head because I had a dbl mastectomy about 4 weeks earlier), but the bag was not uncomfortable at all.  Hope this helps

It looks like a lot of us will be starting close to the same time! I should be hearing from my RO to schedule my first TX...hopefully next week. I am anxious to get this started and over with, as I am sure you all are, too. 

BigD, thanks for the details on what we might expect.

Maryfox, I hope your fever subsides and you can start soon.

Have a great week, ladies~

Yep, we will all get through this and it will be fine.  I look forward to hearing about all of your experiences during our Txs and will share mine as well.  Got you all in my pockets!

Just got the phone call starting RADs Monday, dry run Friday afternoon.  Total 33 treatments.  Nervous, ready to get this over with.   Friday should only take 15-20 minutes for marking and simulation.  Ready to kick BC's butt! Gonna start moisturizing that left breast now...

Hi again everyone...I just posted in another thread.  I am tired & worn out, ladies...I really really am.  Had my last T&C last Tuesday and I saw my Radiation Oncologist on Monday, the 17th of March.

Still feeling the effects of Taxotere and Cytoxan and Neulasta. I look and feel like a freak, I really do.  No hair, no eyebrows, most of eyelashes gone, skin looks gray, a few nails are gone, others are discolored, etc. 

So...there will be no SAVI, no hypo-fractionated anything...no reduced this or that...full speed ahead with whole breast, supra-clavicle, sub-clavicle, axilla, etc, etc. external beam radiation.  RO frightened me 'cause she said "she has placed me in the 'under-treated' category because my positive sentinel node and one additional negative node put me at 50% positive nodes...she would have done an Axillary Node Dissection, etc."  Under-treated?  Really?

I am so frightened and tired of everything.  I look & feel awful.  Do NOT want this sorry beast called breast-cancer to return but what can we do if it does?  This is just part of life for me moving forward.  Trying not to get crazy (again) about recurrence because the only thing I can do is seek appropriate treatment now. 

Thank you for being here everyone.  I have my Simulation Session on April 10th, 2014.  Seeing my Medical Oncologist on March 31, 2014 and will likely start on Femara or Arimidex.  Also have my first post-breast cancer mammogram on April 10th, 2014, which I'm not concerned about.  Nothing will shock me.  I feel I have no emotions left.

Looking forward to meeting others out here!  Hang in there everyone!

Thank you for taking the time to reply, SlowDeepBreaths.  I probably sound like a real whiner, I really do!   Thank you!