Glowing in the dark?

Hi Kaye - I only did radiation to my armpit area (since I had a mastectomy - nothing left to irradiate!), but from others I've heard that your breast can start to have that "microwaved bagel" feel - kind of hard/rubbery! But never fear, it goes away gradually once you're done.

Keep up the PT - you want to avoid shoulder issues, for sure, and that'll help. You may find yourself becoming fatigued,aas the weeks go by - take care of yourself. Be good to yourself. Now is not the time to be heroic. You've successfully gotten through chemo, but don't let your guard down - be diligent about taking care of yourself, all the way to the finish line.

Best of luck, Kaye - I'm sure you'll do fine. - PJH 

Hi Kaye,

I just finished my radiation treatments 2 weeks ago. I had the same kind of effects--swelling, and "thickening" around the incision sites. But my skin handled it really quite well--the techs kept commenting on it. I figured I would have a rough time with it since I'm a red head and tend to burn quite easily. The techs said that response to UV exposure doesn't seem to predict--one way or the other--how a person's skin will react to radiation. And I guess they were right. The worst spot for me was the area around the lymph node incision site. The doc had me use this sticky gel for burns and wear a dressing on it for the last week or two to keep it moist (the opposite of what some women need), which was annoying but not much worse than that. Two weeks later, the skin is all healed in that area, I am only slightly pink, the swelling is down and even the incision sites have flattened out. Oh, and other than the one bad spot, I didn't even peel, which they doc told me I would. So I am living proof that it can be pretty smooth sailing...sometimes, anyway. The fatigue got bad for me the last week or two and the doc said it won't really let up for 3-4 more weeks after the last treatment. I'm working full time and going to grad school, too, so I have been ignoring the fatigue as much as I can and try to get to bed earlier than usual for me, but there is no catching up on that sleep for now! At any rate-hope things continue to go well for you!

Jolene

Kaye,

I too had a lumpectomy to my r breast, but was able to have reconstruction using the DIEP flap method.  I wanted to stay away from artificial boobs because I already tend to have so many auto immune problems.  Chance are you will be fine with it.  Just be glad that they have such things these days.

I appreciate modern medicine and am happy they have come as far as they have, but wish they would hurry up and do better!  It has been almost 7 yeas since my diagnoses and so far all is well.  I hated the chemo and while the medication they gave me to prevent nausea worked during the treatment itself, I woke up at midnight each evening of the treatment with nausea. 

I also thought radiation would be easy compared to chemo, but soon learned that its affects are cumulative.  That is, I was fine the first couple of weeks, but as the weeks went on through almost 7 weeks, I grew weaker,  and the burn really burned.  I found that the Aloe Gel for sunburn worked better to cool it off better than the prescription they gave me.

My biggest grudge with the radiation is that it destroyed my thyroid.  I am so ****** at that fact that I can't even begin to tell you how angry I am.  I later found out from a cousin of mine that they covered her thyroid when radiating. 

So, take notice and ask your doctors about that.  It is bad enough going through all of that without having hypo thyroid brought on by medical treatment.

Good luck to you, and most of all I encourage a positive attitude.  Keep in mind that it is only one year out of your life and you will be fine and wiser for it.