radiation questions
 

So glad to be done weekly chemo and moving on to every 3 weeks!!! whoop whoop!!! another mile stone. Now on to radiation. What should I expect? Is it painful? I'm finally back to work and hoping it does not interfere.
I think I'm going to wait and start after my daughters wedding. Thanks for any insight!!!
Denise

Re: radiation questions
 

Hi Denise,

I just finished my radiation part as of last Friday. I had 33 treatments. As far as what to expect here was my experience. I continued to work throughout my treatment. I have a low stress, professional job so that was good. My skin became a little raw into the fifth week and we had to stop for about 3 days so my skin could recover. Be sure to moisturize in the morning and afterwards. The Aquaphor was doing its job until the raw part. My doc did order me Silvadine which is a burn treatment solution. I am a little fatigued but this is normal I am told. The radiation does not hurt. My skin was raw but did not hurt. Partially because the mastecomy left me numb underneath my arm pit which is where the rawness was centered. The Aquaphor tended to rub off on my clothing so there was some staining. Be sure to eat healthy and drinks lots of water. Stay away from caffeine or any drink which could dehydrate you. Enjoy your daugher's wedding.

Take good care,

Jackie

Re: radiation questions
 

Denise - Jackie pretty much covered it all. The only other thing - which you probably already know- is that the treatments are every day (5 days for me with weekends off). I had to drive about 25 miles each way to the center where I had treatments - then after undressing and getting prepped, hte entire treatment time was only about 3 minutes. You will have to go in a couple of times prior to starting treatment for measuring and marking (I have little tattooed dots) so that the radiation is going exactly where it needs to. I'm very fair and put my skin cream right after each treatment before getting dressed and had very minimal burning. Be sure to ask the nurses or techs for whatever they recommend before treatments start. Several of the women I met during radiation were doing it during lunch hours and never missed any work but everyone reacts differently so don't worry if you get very tired or have other problems. After chemo, radiation is seemed very easy to me. Good luck and let us know how it is going.

Re: radiation questions
 

Radiation (per se) does not hurt.
The further into the treatment the more likely it is that one will get some redness, some burning (but my doctor checked me each time and adjusted as necessary). I did work through radiation but was quite tired with little energy. If I had it to over again (I have a high stress job and need to work quite a bit) I would have not gone back to work until radiation was through.

Re: radiation questions
 

You don't say what type of chemo you had? Per my doc, adriamycin seems to make our skin more sensitive to the radiation and it was an ongoing battle to keep my redness under control. An Acupuncturist found a wonderful burn sauve that I used and was approved by all my docs - Springwind Burn Sauve - find it online. It smells like dead leaves and is brown but definitely saved me. Nothing else worked. I also treated myself to a soft, shirt that zipped down the front that was my "radiation outfit" - easy on, easy off. You will do fine - radiation is much easier on the body than chemo.

Re: radiation questions
 

I just found I was fatigued with the rads and did'nt burn but did go pink and itchy! It was also expensive to pay for gas each day to the centre so be prepared for that!