Winter 2015-16 RADS

Hi all!

Mdoc 524, you can add my start date at the top which is February 15. 16 treatments. I had my SIM today and it went really well, got my tattoos, was shown where to get my gowns and change. The techs were really fun and super kind.

I have been following this group for awhile now, but now that I am just a couple weeks away from starting, have some questions and will be posting a lot from now on I think .

I have a friend who used straight aloe vera (refrigerated) twice a day, and she did fine with her skin. I am thinking of this but wondering about some other lotions. I am in Canada so the availability of some items that some of you have recommended/used may be limited to me, but my rad nurse recommended Aveeno, Moisturel, Hugo Naturals, Burt's Bees shea butter and vitamin E, and Kiss My Face fragrance free olive and aloe. Have any of you had experience with these? Any info would be awesome. Thanks!

Kim

I feel like we've been digested and moving through the bowel system. At the end - plop, splash

thanks mdoc, but you had added me a couple months ago, i was near the top, just without a specific start date. Thank you for adding me and thank you ladies for the lotion recommendations!

Kim

This group has been incredible! The support here is a true life saver.
We all have our own support systems....family and friends....but there is something about sharing our daily lives with other women who actually understand just what we are dealing with. The treatments, the worry, the fear of recurrence, the tiredness....the ups and downs. We all "get it" and there is something powerful about that!

I'm 2.5 weeks done with rads and started feeling breast or muscle or rib pain a couple of days ago. It's not shoulder pain. Although l had shoulder pain before all of this began. Two things, I stopped using the mometasone cream Wednesday and hadn't done any of the stretching exercises my PT prescribed this week. I think there is loads more healing happening than what we can see on the surface. I'm still feeling tired at night too. I'm going back to the stretching exercises in hopes my muscles will stay limber while healing. I'm going to guess three more months. Does anyone know how long the majority of healing takes?

You think you're done when rads are over, and you're not! Like someone else said here, this is WORK!

BTW, I started on Arimidex 10 days ago, and no SE's yet. Crossing my fingers.

Good luck to everyone going through rads!

KateB, I felt exactly like you did before starting radiation. I knew I needed to do it, but couldn't wrap my head around all of the side effects and why the medical community thought the SEs were acceptable. I considered not doing it, then considered not doing the boost, then questioned my decision not to have a mastectomy, and finally wound up so distraught that I went on antidepressants! It was the best thing I ever did. I could finally think clearly again after the months of stress that had built up. My heart goes out to you! Cancer sucks

Mdoc, kateB, and brimton, good luck this week. In my experience if your first week starts with a sim and a treatment on the same day, that is a long day, but otherwise once you get used to the routine the first week is not painful. Second week I turned a bit pink, but not much pain, third week for me is when all of the SEs started to hit. Most of the SEs I am having, my RO says are not related to radiation, hmmm. . . I am having mild stomach upset at night, hair loss on the head,inability to fall asleep and joint aching that he says are not related. The breast/rib soreness, rashes, itching he takes credit for.

Mdoc especially want to thank you for starting this for everyone. I assumed you had already started. You have done very well keeping up with everyone and keeping the group together. You speak as though you understand it all!

Prayers and best wishes to everyone.

Hi Kimmer - I am in central BC. I was lucky to have a friend visit from California and bring Miaderm [water based aloe and calendula], but I also use Aveeno and ordered MyGirls [calendula etc] online from Amazon.ca, as others had recommended it and I like it. My rad dept says anything that is water based is fine, so I am not using my emu oil I bought until after rads are finished..... I think a high oil content may make skin surface more likely to burn... ? I think back to my teenage beach babe tanning days slathered in baby oil:)

I have done 18 of 28 and slight pinkness. Still have puffy breast that is apparently a local immune response, but this weekend my 2 rings are suddenly very tight so I took them off, and bicep area has a weird tingly heavy feel..... hoping it's not my biggest fear Lymphedema starting

I'm so glad you all are here. It's so helpful to read about everyone's experiences. I meet with my RO briefly on Thursday and I guess I'll find out then when it begins and how many treatments, etc. Not wild about doing this at all, but mostly dreading all the driving.

Still kinda in my chemo "fog" even though it's been 3 weeks now. Sure was hoping to feel better faster!

Wishing everyone better days ahead!

Hey Ladies! I am joining the group officially tomorrow I had my sim on Thursday and YES had to take a pregnancy test despite the fact that I am 49 and not currently dating anyone and haven't in years!

I was first diagnosed in 2009 and went through chemo but not rads..which actually makes me more nervous than chemo.

I was dx with a chest wall recurrence in the skin and pec muscle in October and after surgery and many test to make sure no other cancer and abscessed stiches and infection I am finally cleared for rads.

Initially my RO wanted to do 4 areas to the chest wall, nodes etc but I saw that as overkill and read many post of regrets over the extensive radiation and the damage to recon etc. I know it sounds bad to have affect of recon as a deciding factor but after 8 surgeries and finally feeling good and having a 5mm tumor in the skin outside the breast pocket I just didn't think it was necessary to be so aggressive. I said I wanted to save that type of extensive radiation as an option in the future if I needed it. (also neg nodes) So with that said I am having the CONE...for a direct shot on the latest incision site (which is approx 6 inches long) and 2cm margin all around it. I am nervous for the usual reasons but also I am worried about how these abscessed stitches will be affected. The stitches essentially didn't dissolve and I still have 3 bumps on my incision. I went through a round of antibiotics and PS says it is no longer infected and stiches could take up to 18 months to pop or dissolve. Has anyone experienced this while going through rads? I am so nervous radiation will cause infection. Also...of course I have rotten luck and my normally sweet cat freaked out over a noise as I was holding her and scratched the crap out of me as she catapulted herself off me and under the bed. The worse bloody part of the scratch is on my neck far away from the radiation field but a small part of the scratch that was just a surface scratch no blood is in the range they are radiating. Tomorrow is my first day and I don't know if they wont do it because of the scratch. Do I sound crazy...I really am not. I am just stressed. This recurrence has been emotionally tougher than the initial dx and I have struggled with it. I am so not looking forward to more treatment and worry about how my skin will hold up.

I appreciate all the words of advice I have read and the recommendations for helpful products. It always feels good to know you are not alone on this journey and having everyone here I know will lift my spirits on those tough days.

Thanks for being here

Diane

Hello everyone. I don't post often but read all of your posts. They are great encouragement to me and remind me that this is a journey that so many of us are on. And, I read many of these posts, I realize that compared to the difficulties that many of you have endured, I am blessed and have no reason to ever complain. I'm fortunate that my cancer was found early (DCIS) and therefore, my treatment path has not been the same as many of yours. However, the emotional aspect of the realization of "I have breast cancer" is the same for us all. Even though mine was found early, I know that there is always the chance for recurrence (although I'm going to stay positive and continue to fight!).

I have finished 14 of 16 rads treatments and am due to have my final treatment this Tuesday, Feb. 2. My skin has held up extremely well, much to my surprise since I am fair-skinned. I don't know if my dose is different because of early stage or if that has anything to do with it or not. My skin is pink and the most irritated place is under the arm. And overall itching. I've reacted just like I do when I have gotten a sunburn in the past. I used to get "sun poison" and got these itchy bumps on my skin and now have some of those with the rads. So, overall, I feel blessed that I have tolerated this without a lot of difficulty. When I read about the pain and problems many of you are having, I send up a prayer when I read your posts. You all are a great group of ladies and I feel like I know you from reading your posts. The support for one another on this thread is phenomenal! Thank you all for sharing your stories and always being a source of information and strength to keep on facing another day in the journey.

I also want to share a special story of something that happened to me on Saturday. I attended a women's college basketball game with my husband and daughter at my daughter's alma mater. She was the previous manager for the women's basketball team when she was in college, and we are still friends with the coach. It was the team's "Play for Kay" game of the season. Each college's women's basketball team has one of these games each season. The games are fund raisers for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund (former NC State coach who died from breast cancer) with the organization's funds going to cancer research. Prior to the beginning of the game, the announcer was telling about the "Play for Kay" games and the fund. He then noted that the day's game was being dedicated to several women fighting breast cancer and I was one of the three women whose names he called out. It was such an honor and one of the most thoughtful things anyone has done for me. It brought tears to my eyes. After the game, the coach excitedly asked me, "did you hear your name called?" She was the one that had included my name in the dedication list. It touched me in a special way. Oh, and they won the game so that made it even more special!

Kimmie I also had my period that day and was in a super bitchy mood..but the women at the lab appreciated my comments as I left my sample. I was greatly concerned about my skin and pec muscle actually THE reason I didn't do whole breast radiation and the 3 areas of nodes. I think if you don't have breast tissue to absorb the heat from rads you'd burn more. I know they can treat the skin burns but for such a small tumor I just couldn't do it

Debbie that's really sweet. My niece did a paper in college on her hero and she picked me!! It makes me cry every time I think about it. Sometimes we quietly go through our battle only complaining here ..and don't always realize that others see our strength and are actually inspired by us.

Marijen it's a weird thing...I got scratched on my mx side by my neighbors cat (cats really do like me) I was house sitting and the two got into a fight.,anyhow I am so paranoid about infection so I piled on the neosporin. Then I got a little bump . .I went to my ps and he thought it was a sebaceous cyst. He gave me a rx for antibiotics but it didn't go away. My ps said it had to be removed in a sterile OR..since I'm self employed and was busy at the time I kept putting it off trying everything to make it go away . .fast forward a 18 months later ..I know I know...I had it removed we were all shocked it was cancer. My bs went back looking at previous mri's were it was noted a spot was picked up but because it was in the skin they thought it was a blemish. At surgery it ended up being in the muscle 2 mm skin 5,5 mm. It was on mx side 9th from my primary . .I was multifocal with 4 tumors and no rads initially which my bs is beating himself up over but I don't blame anyone. The tumor was unchanged on my next 2 mri's so if it didn't pop through I'd still not know it was there especially since insurance has denied my last mri

Sorry so long

Diane

That is very weird Diane. Not too long. What if the cat hadn't scratched you I wonder. Glad you are set up to get rid of it again. You sound cheery regardless