Congratulations Journeyforward, Linda, and MLghtn!!!

PebblesV and urdrago71, your poochie pix make my day. Here's my contribution: this is my grandpuppy, who unfortunately lives too far away to pet.

Wow! Yesterday was a banner day with so many finishing rads. Congratulations!!

I had tx 11/30 yesterday. The fatigue is real! But I’m fortunate to work from home, so I can rest as needed. Using Aquafor twice a day and just added Camwell lotion, Miaderm alternative I found on amazon, after treatment

Enjoy the weekend break everyone! Back at it on Monday!

Kim

Feeling super depressed.....Breast Lymphadema and Radiation Fibrosis suck. My life prior to cancer was already full of chronic pain, doctor appts, stress, and living a Spoonie life. Now add all of this into my day and it seems 24/7 I am just treating symptoms, at physical therapy appts, onco appts, and other dr appts. In the last 3 weeks since RADs finished, I've had 8 dr appts and 3 PT rehabs. No end in sight.

Just soooooo tired of this. Having to wear a compression prosthesis on my L breast 8-12 hours a day is painful and frustrating. Going to PT twice a week and then wake up next morning feeling like I was hit by a truck (even using the gentlest of treatments at PT) is getting old. I guess at least upside is Elisabeth (cancer rehab wonderwoman PT) thinks we are making progress and the adhesions are lossening a bit between my scars and my range of motion is still improving.

On top of that the whole having to switch from Cymbalta to Pristiq in order to at some point take Tamoxifen is just killing me. Going on 6 weeks of this particular nightmare. I can't wait to tell my MO and my Psych to take Pristiq and shove it mid December, and if there's nothing else I can take to keep me mentally healthy with Tamoxifen than I choose mental health. I have to.

Sorry to be such a downer but I am just really struggling, mentally and physically. Most of my life I've been sick, fatigued, in pain, last year when I was planning this move back home I was looking forward to a new start and then cancer happened. Oh well, right? The best laid plans...of a 41 year old woman. Le Sigh.

Tomorrow will be better I know. Nights are just so hard.

Hope everyone has a better weekend than I am, but hey, SNL comes on in a few hours and it's new, so hopefully that will bring some much needed laughs my way!

Spoonie, years ago I tried pristiq instead of Zoloft and I had horrible panic attacks. I'm sorry you are dealing with so much! Gentle hugs.v

Alice, aloe + hydrocortisone has stopped my rash in it's tracks. I'm slowly turning redder, but I'm still pretty comfortable, it's kinda like a headache, in my boob, lol.

Thanks for the hugs ladies. Much appreciated.

Wishing the rest of you continued healing and speedy finales to your treatments.

Spoonie sorry about the side effects. It’s ok to feel upset about all of this.

I’m 10 days out from radiation and have developed a nice red rash in my arm pit!! WTH!! I’ve been using aloe aquaphor still and this happened. Why!?!? My husband and friend think it looks like a razor rash but I haven’t shaved the 3 stray hairs in days and it’s in the lower portion of my pit, near the breast where there is no hair! Going to call the dr office tomorrow since it’s pretty painful.

This shit sucks and I’m over it!

DWiseley I just put on some hydrocortisone and that smoothed it a bit. So I’ll keep doing that. I bet it’s from working out then. I’ve just started exercising again, I thought I would be ok being over a week out but I guess not. Ugh. So frustrating

I finished rads last Thursday. The fatigue is the worst part for me, I am still dragging. I started the arimidex on Friday, so I don't know if that is adding to my fatigue or not. For those of you with the itchy rash, my RO recommended zinc oxide. It cleared up the rash in 2 days for me. Also if you get a bad spot that feels chaffed and sore, the Cool Magic Hydrogel pads are amazing. Pricey but amazing. On my last visit my center had gotten in samples of the miaderm! I thought of all of you and your rave reviews.

Slather on ladies. Be kind to yourself. No matter how tough or brave you are this isn't easy.

I actually turned a darker pink over the weekend... Anyone else have the experience of 2 days off rads and get deeper red?

DWiseley,

I've heard that some woman get the reddest the week or two after rads are over. So maybe it's kind of a delayed reaction.

Hey DeeBB,

Glad your first treatment went well! Usually the remaining ones take less time. Hope things go well for you.

I'm on day 25 and I haven't gotten red, just blotchy pink on the collarbone and around the areola, plus the nipple looks kind of shrivelly. I'm getting some nerve discomfort in the incision areas that feels similar to the post-op experience, but it's not too bad. All the reactions seem to vary a lot from person to person, so I don't think trying to predict them for each other is helpful. All we can do is share our own experiences so others can see the range of side effects that can happen. Sharing what worked on the skin is also helpful (I'm an aloe + Aquaphor fan), but that also varies from person to person. Wishing everyone well!

Hi everyone - Domino is chiming in today to say it’s OK to feel a little “eh” on this Monday. And also sending empathy to those having side effects needing a little comfort.

I’m 24 of 30 sessions done today... will send an update tomorrow

Soooooo, I have an update....about my "rash that's not a rash" that last week my RO referred me to Dermatology for.

Turns out what I have going on, in layman's terms, is hair follicle/sweat gland death (atrophy) and resulting scarring due to the radiation. I guess it's called Dermal Fibrosis, which falls under what I already was diagnosed with a few weeks ago, Radiation Fibrosis. Can also be occur with and without Chronic Radiation Dermatitis.

Makes sense now with why it didn't hurt or anything bothersome and just felt cord-like and lumpy...it's dead areas with their scars. Small they may be. They're there.

Derma took a good look at me and said I don't see this too often, no wonder your RO sent you to me.

Yay for me....not...but sort of. I was just relieved to have someone tell me it's not new cancer or something in regards to the old one.

It's mostly likely permanent, although only time will tell. More scars to add to my port scars from Lyme Treatment and my surgery scars. Cool. <rolls eyes>

Close the books, mystery solved. Now to add this label onto my other and let my Cancer PT Wonder woman work her magic if possible.

PS - Thanks Pebbles for the smiles from Domino. She never fails to pass along some joy!

PSS - Congrats to all that are finishing up and or have finished RADs! Wishing you a speedy recovery and boundless buckets of energy to find you asap!

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4906114/

Acute and Chronic Cutaneous Reactions to Radiation Therapy

"Post-inflammatory dyspigmentation is common, and, depending on the skin type of the patient and severity of the reaction, may slowly resolve or worsen over time [3]. The skin may become xerotic, scaly, and hyperkeratotic. Significant cutaneous injury is characterized by persistent dyspigmentation, atrophy, and telangiectasia (Fig. 4) [3]. Telangiectasia commonly results from boost dosing, acute radiation grade 3 injury, and moist desquamation [17, 18]. With severe cutaneous injury, there may be permanent loss of nail and skin appendages, absence of hair follicles and sebaceous glands with resultant alopecia, and absent or reduced sweating [3]. Small arteries and arterioles predisposed to thrombosis or obstruction may lead to skin breakdown and ulceration [3, 9]. Further, atrophied skin is fragile and is predisposed to erosions and ulcerations that are painful and slow to heal [3, 19].

The defining features of the late-stage are fibrosis, atrophy, hypo- or hyperpigmentary changes and the development of cutaneous malignancies (Table 4).

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http://www.biomodels.com/disease-areas/fibrosis/radiation-fibrosis

Numerous tissues are affected by radiation therapy. Skin is often affected, with both acute and chronic phases of skin injury. Early effects of radiation on skin include increased erythema, desquamation, and possibly ulceration. Later effects include dermal fibrosis, sebaceous and sweat gland atrophy, hair loss, and telangiectasia. The gastrointestinal (GI) tract is also often affected by radiation. Symptoms in patients with GI damage include pain, blood loss, diarrhea, fecal incontinence and changes to bowel movements. In addition, lung tissue in often damaged following radiation therapy. Acutely, patients may develop pneumonitis, though chronic fibrosis, which often leads to respiratory dysfunction and decreased quality of life, accompanies radiation therapy months to years after initial treatments.

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Oh and it's interesting to read this small study on how our skins' conductivity level changes during RADs....

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12595618_Sweat_gland_function_as_a_measure_of_radiation_change

"Radiotherapy may result in dryness of the skin even when no other change can be detected. We describe a system for recording the electrical conductance of skin as a measure of sweat gland function. In 22 normal volunteers close agreement was obtained between measurements obtained from comparable sites on both sides of the chest. Measurements were subsequently made in 38 patients treated by radiotherapy to one side of the chest for tumours of the breast or lung using one of five different fractionation schedules. Simultaneous readings were obtained from both sides of the chest with the non irradiated side acting as a control. A dose response relationship was demonstrated: five patients who received the equivalent total dose of 15 Gy in 2-Gy fractions showed no change in conductance. Sixteen out of 23 who received an equivalent total dose of 42-46 Gy in 2-Gy fractions had a greater than 22% reduction in mean skin conductance compared with that of the control areas despite the skin appearing normal in the large majority. Marked changes in skin conductance were seen after higher total doses. In a prospective study 18 women receiving breast irradiation underwent weekly readings during treatment. A mean reduction of 40% in skin conductance was noted by the end of the second week of treatment prior to any clinical evidence of radiation change. Skin conductance returned to normal in 44% of patients by 6 months. In the remainder, those patients who showed the greatest reduction in skin conductance during treatment demonstrated the least recovery. Changes in sweat gland function can be detected and quantified in skin which may otherwise appear normal. Differences may so be demonstrated between areas treated using different fractionation schedules and the method may be applied to the detection during radiotherapy of unusually sensitive patient."
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DWiseley --> Yeah, it's not fun. Le Sigh.

As far as I know, according to Derma is that it's most likely a permanent loss of those hair follicles and sweat glands in that area. Not that I had hair there, but we all have follicles along our skin entirety so I guess this loss is not a big deal per se. Derma said that since the area involved is, at least for now, only a few inches in the center of my chest, down through my cleavage, I shouldn't feel any repercussions due to the sweat gland scarring. There are plenty of other ones in the area to take over the job.

She did offer the caveat though that since symptoms can continue and appear for the next 6 months or so, it's not a guarantee that this is the size area I will end up with, it could be larger. Let's hope not.

As far as therapy, I see my Cancer Rehab PT tomorrow and will let her know this was the dx. I'm guessing since it's still fibrosis, of the dermis this time, we'll just add this area into the treatment plan we've already worked out for my pectoral RADs fibrosis. To work to keep the affected area from stiffening, adhering, and swelling.

Just my guess though. I'm so glad I went into RADs with the expectation that things would be difficult, that's just how my body has worked for years, and it prved me right again.

That's great news Dwiseley! Yay for moles and not more rash! Wooot!