Winter 2015-16 RADS

First, my heartfelt congratulations to all who have completed rads and are on the mend. You ladies are amazing! For those still on this ride, I'm with ya. Although not at all like our chemo sisters, it's still tough. We're reminded everyday of our BC experience and, for some, each day is substantially disrupted by the trip to and from. Hang in there.

All the advice on how to minimize SE's has been tremendously helpful. Hearing everyone's experience has been emotionally supportive for me in ways you'll probably never know. I guess what I'm trying to say is, thank you to all of you who spend so much of your time posting, reading and advising. You're all a tribute to our 'sisterhood'

As for me, I finished 21 of 28 treatments today. My left breast has never, ever seen a tan this dark but luckily, still no open sores or blisters. RO prescribed silvadene for the weekend days when I don't have rads. (I guess she's thinking I'm about ready to 'bloom'.........

Some of you may recall that I set up a little 'procedure' to reward myself for getting through this: four champagne flutes with 7 pink gumballs in each. My reward after each treatment was a yummy gumball. (I usually don't eat sugar so it's a real treat!). After every 7th treatment, I get a glass of champagne (well, sparkling wine.) So this evening, I toast you all with my third glass. Here's to us - rad warriors extraordinaire!

START OF TREATMENT - MARCH 15th

TODAY - APRIL 12th after 21 treatments and 7 to go

congrats, Karen! We'll get our last few members through this!

I haven't been in here as much now that I'm done. I'm just so sick of cancer, cancer, cancer! I've slowed way down on blogging, too, although I still have some posts to make.

I'm getting steadily fitter and stronger every week, and I've lost 7.5 pounds! *grumble* *grumble* to go. Celebratory cruise in 19 days!

wow...that's pretty interesting because I also gained weight during radiation...kind of strange

I lost weight during radiation. But then I started tamoxifen, and now I'm gaining it all back.

My RO's nurse said it was important to maintain a stable weight. . . . Again with the magic 8-ball.

I'm worrying a lot about recurrence/mets these days. I have no idea why. We're moving, and I strained my back, but I'm obsessing about bone mets--every little ache and pain freaks me out. My RO said this would happen, and I didn't believe him at the time. I see him on Monday; I hope my back feels better by then!

The hydrocortisone did WONDERS for my tiny blisters!! They are no longer itchy and have calmed down. I don't know if they will still grow but at least I'm not adding to anything by scratching. I'm still using my Glaxo base cream and my skin is supple. I used it after my double mast and my scar line is beautiful. My DH used to rub it in for me so he got used to my look before I did!

Any hormone replacement will cause bone aches. I already have horrendous arthritis in every joint in my body including fingers and toes. My bone scan in February was the worst I've ever had. Now they want to take estrogen out of me??? Are you kidding? I was too ill on Arimidex so I've been off it for a week or so, but they want me to try to go back on it April 19th to see if I can tolerate it. I have Fibromyalgia and the stress of radiation is debilitating me. I, too, had a client face-to-face for 2 hours straight yesterday and almost passed out. My DH had to pretty much prop me up in bed.

BUT, I am down to single digits!! Only 8 more to go.

Hey, Kkubsky, me too! This was also my last day, although I went 6 1/2 weeks.

No one was around to hear me ring the bell, though. The next patient had already gone in for treatment when I was changing, and even the receptionist was out (sick I think, as there is always someone there). So, this message is my virtual bell.

Congrats Kkubsky and Katja23!

Twinkltoz, I forgot to say congrats on the 7.5 pounds gone! Keep plugging away at it! That's how I lost mine - very slowly and a lot of maintenance months but never regaining more than 1 or 2 pounds before I started losing more. It's not easy!! Our bodies do not generally want to lose weight and our traitor brain starts tricking us into eating more if we try to go too fast.

Kkubsky and Katja Congrats on finishing - Let the healing begin. I hope you were able to celebrate in a special way.

congrats, kkubsky and katje!

Thank you, moondust!

I gained weight during chemo, after surgery, and during radiation. I tried to get it under control between phases, but there wasn't much I could do. I was eating and not exercising.

Today was 15/30-ish.

I'd love your thoughts on this concern I have:

You may remember that my hospital was recently hacked, taking their system down for a full week. I had just started my radiation treatments - was just 4 treatments in - when things shut down. Since then they have been asking me to come on the weekends to make up treatments I missed.

For the past two weekends I've gone in one day. So last week, I went in Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Had Sunday off and then everyday this week.

This morning they again asked me to come in on the weekend. I'm inclined to say no. I'm exhausted. I'd really like a break.

I can't tell if they are having me come on the weekends due to medical necessity (it was really bad for me to miss a whole week and they are trying to jam treatments in to zap the hell out of me for cancer concerns) or to just get back on their schedule/catch me up to ease their scheduling mess.

Yesterday was the first day the fatigue really started. Today I woke up really sore. My shoulders, my collarbone on the radiated side. And I'm starting to feel tired/emotional about all of this.

I'm set to see the Dr tomorrow and will ask about it, but wondered if you all have an opinion on it/thoughts or suggestions of things I should be asking about it all. I don't even know the total number of treatments I'm going to be having, so at this point there's this big, long unknown path ahead of me that feels like it's stretching out forever. WWYD?

edwsmom - They asked if we wanted to come in the first weekend they were back up and running but not the second. I said no. I too was tired and really sore. I was afraid of what my skin would feel and look like if I went that many days straight. It added to the time I had to go but that was ok. I'm done now and starting to heal.

Andraxo congrats on the last boost.

Kkubsky and Katja congratulations on finishing. It feels so good to be done.

Just say no. The reason for the number of zaps is due to the "life cycle" of the cancer and them wanting to destroy any growth as/if it occurs. I asked. Stopping for 5 days is scary, but hey! I had to not come in on Good Friday at Easter. The cells would be zapped again when I went back 3 days later....

I do want to add for anyone new here: Aloe of ANY kind is "just to soothe" the skin and not moisturize!! In fact, it will dry out your skin. You must, must, must moisturize heavily with a quality product.

I'm getting 9,500 gys and the "normal" is 5-6,000. They kept warning me that I was going to have bad skin damage. I have 7 zaps left and I know it gets worse before it begins to heal, but my skin is just tanned. Not even red. I started to get itchy and immediately got a prescription of hydrocortisone and my skin is not itchy anymore. I'm pleased to say the least and hope I didn't just jinx myself!

I had a new tech this morning and she was amazed at my skin. I told her I wasn't bathing every day and was using Glaxol Base. She gave me a thumbs up and said "I can't believe years ago we told people to use Aloe and cornstarch!" I see both mentioned above in the TIPS and am worried for others. Perhaps that is "old" thinking????

My heart goes out to those of you with breasts still as I can imagine heat is trapped under the bra-line and gets irritated under there.

Congrats to those who have finished!!!!!!!!!

I got my hair cut for the completion of radiation. I ended up donating 13 inches. A new me was just what I needed.

Barbe I think the next step is highlights also. The gray doesn't want to let me cover it up.