Help! Was your breast covered for rads? Need to convince RO!

After all I have been thru Mastectomy, Kidney removal, more doctor visits this past year than I have had in 32 years since the birth of my daughter. I am to point that they are professional they are treating you professionally and sorry that we have to exposed. This is a medical procedure, they do not have strangers lurking around the console looking at the cameras.Your body is also marked with the points to start radiation and other markers for them. If your body is covered they will not be able to get the beam in the correct area to kill those cancer cells. Yes it sucks to be uncovered but I want to make sure they are getting the direct spot and not just guessing it is in the correct area.

Did you have issues with being exposed during your mammograms or ultrasounds? It can be very stressful having to go thru all these tests with everyone looking at our body.

I hope you find something that works for you.

I was exposed during rads, but by the time I had rads, I was beyond concerns about modesty. (I even gave permission for a male rads tech intern to work with me during my sessions.) I guess some BC patients are covered, but it may depend on the machine. One thing I learned during rads is that rads machines vary quite a bit. The interns who worked my sessions did rotations across the metropolitan area because each center seemed to have a different machine!

That said, I agree that rads can be dehumanizing. I remember the techs pushing and pulling at my body to get it into exactly the right position. It made me feel like a piece of meat! But, rads was so quick compared to chemo that it was tolerable to me. Have you thought about taking an anti-anxiety drug like Ativan or Xanax? Such a drug might help you relax and tolerate the sessions better. Of course, Ativan and Xanax can also make you sleepy, so..... Just a thought! Best wishes!

it doesn't bother me at all to be completely exposed. I am halfway thru treatments. I actually hate the radiation robe you have to change into. Tying it confuses me. I'd rather walk in there top less or my own tank top. But maybe I'm just getting so used to so many doctors seeing my chest

I seem tohave lost my modesty a long time ago. I think now I could walk through the mall topless and not even care. You need to be comfortable your setting though so definitely talk to the RO. You could also get your own robe to wear as you walk down the hallway. I have seen some pretty online.

One thing you might consider for the hallways, my center allowed us to take two gowns. Put one on with the opening in the front to be easily accessible for radiation but also easy to pull across. Put the other one on top w/a back opening for modesty in the halls, and that one can be removed in the treatment room.

After all the treatment, I agree that I am not bothered by the necessity for medical personnel to uncover anything they deem necessary. I'd much rather get the best treatment possible.

No, and I did feel self-conscious, but not for the usual reason. I felt deformed, at that time, before reconstruction, and didn't like anybody else seeing me.

I mentioned this to a technician and she reassured me that it's no big deal to them, and she had seen much worse. Anyway, I got used to it after a few treatments. Just something else on this "journey" one has to put up with. Best wishes!

Edit: I was always covered except in the radiation room, and even there only during treatment. Even then the other breast was always covered.

I am sorry you are having to deal with extra stress of this in addition to the actual treatment. They did leave my breast exposed for the 2 minute treatment but were always quick to cover me up as soon as possible. The monitors were kept in a tech only room.

I will heartily agree with you on the corridor walk in a gown. My treatment was in the winter so I would march down the hall in my gown, winter coat over that and carrying my clothes and belongings. I truly believe no one was interested in me- they all were dealing with either their own work or troubles but I thought this is not a great "patient experience" and that someone could do a better floor layout-design so the corridor march was removed from the process. Best wishes to you and please let us know how your meeting with the RO goes.

lifeb4me, I had a central lumpectomy, meaning about 1/3 of my breast in front, including the nipple, was chopped off. For all the usual reasons, I was an emotional wreck at the time I did rads. After I got reconstruction, and also just had time to process everything and heal, physically and emotionally, things were much better. I don't think much about all that now, amazingly.

That's a strange story about your mom's Catholic school. How on earth does one take a shower with a robe on? My mom and dad were also very modest. Nobody in my childhood home was ever seen unclothed.

Hi life...so sorry you are having a hard time with this part of the process..and you have the right to feel the way that you do...I personally I have a problem just walking into my cancer center..it causes me high anxiety just to walk into the place..lol..I take an ativan before I even walk thru the doors....My RO center is a bit different from a lot of yalls...they gave me a card to scan at the desk to check in..then I would walk to the Radiation part of the center and go this waiting room which had coffee/water/snacks and a tv...they then would call me and they had like this rectangular room setting that had monitors and computers..so only they could see the monitors..i guess..and then I would go into the radiation room...that had a side room with a chair and mirror and basket to put the pillow case in when radiation was finished...I only had to take off my shirt and be naked from top up and kept my pants on and covered my top part with the pillow case and got on the big what I call slab..lol...then the techs would pull the pillow case down and go to work....it didn't bother me...b/c the process was real fast..it took like 5 min if that..then when I was done the techs would pull my pillow case back up to cover me and the techs were 3 men and 1 woman and they were very professional...but I just hated going everyday that was my biggest problem...I think like the others said ..you should take something for your nerves before going to treatment..that helped me a lot.

Hope your RO respects your wishes:)

It is 6 years since my rads and I can't remember much but I think we had wrap around gowns, not hospital gowns.

I definitely support you in raising this issue as it concerns you so much. Would you feel more comfortable with female techs?

The Facility I went to gave you 'super woman capes' and terrycloth robes to wear. There is no way anyone would have been allowed to walk down an aisle with their 'shinney hinney' hanging out. The only area 'exposed' during rads was the area being 'hit' (mastectomy).

I just wore something I could pull off over my head. I was called into the machine room, yanked the shirt off, grabbed a towel, stretched out on table. Once or twice there was a male tech, possibly a student. I was always asked if I minded that. No I didn't, he was there to learn. Was covered with towel while positioned, until they needed to line up the tats. Then the machine would change track, and I knew I was almost done.

By the time I did rads, so many medics had poked, felt, seen, what was left of me, I was numb. It didn't matter anymore. 5 years later, it still doesn't. Had to do an EKG at cardiologist I thought the tech would hit the floor when I pulled my shirt off. 😜

It's the line up with the tats that's important. And they constantly check to make sure it's all good, which is why the need to be uncovered.

Hi, ladies, I've been reading all the comments about the issue. And I know how Lifeb4me feels. I rejected RT for several reasons; rad dose (too high), coldness in the RT room, position of the body (radiculopathies), cost, tattoos (no tattoos for me, not negotiable), rad to my armpit (lymphedema risk), rotation and experience (no information) of techs, and the modesty issue. The two centers I went to used gowns for patients with closure at the front. I looked at Internet for rad gowns which are uncovered and covered with velcro tapes on the site of rad. They were so cute. But the centers do not let anything on only a mold just because the tattoo marks. I said no. The cold temperature in the centers, hospitals and RO are infernally cold. When I go to an appointment I get sick afterwards.

Every time I thought I had to be uncovered about one and half hour during simulation my BP went up. The only good thing at the second center was that they used a mold during RT but the machines were older than those in the first center. It was also less expensive. But that did not minimize the anxiety. Anyway, since last year, I have been seen by so many doctors and I still feel and felt uncomfortable. My general physician and second MO were female, all the others were male (BS, PS, first MO, etc.). I decided to go to all appointments with front closure bra and shirt with buttons on the front that I unbutton during the check. I don't wear the small paper gowns at the doctor's office because the mixing of latex, betadine, tape and bandages and something else (which I should remember) gave me a large allergy reaction. I don't even resist the paper gown. The OR is different, but I maintained myself covered with the LX gown they give me the most I could while I was awake.

I also was raised in a Catholic school and modesty was a high standard. I don't like being exposed. High blood pressure sets and I become very upset. When that is profoundly ingrained in our brain, it is not easy to dismiss. As many of you have said, medical procedures have become dehumanizing and painful for patients that physicians and technicians should be revising their protocols. They can cover us while rad tx after they place you on the slab and set you with the measure and the RX or CT.

Lifeb4me, talk to your RO and tell her how uncomfortable you feel. I guess that you have both breasts radiated. I think an agreement can be made in written form. Good luck.

Maria

Granted, I had multi-catheter brachytherapy, but the techs still needed access to my one breast to make the connections to the device. I wore only a cottony stretchy breast binder without a bra and a fleece jacket on top to each treatment and never had to change to a hospital gown. I walked to the treatment room fully dressed, laid on the table, then unzipped the jacket and, finally, opened the Velcro on the front of the breast binder and pulled aside just one side. I'm pretty modest, but this worked for me.