Well yesterday I walked into the treatment room and the table was set up different! I knew right away it meant we were now onto doing the "boosts". So no more radiation to the entire breast! Yippee!! Now they are only aiming it directly at the site where the tumor was. And it is much shallower so it won't be doing a lot of tissue damage. They said the rest of my breast will actually begin healing during this and it will take about a week to 2 from the end to feel more like myself again. For those of you who don't know; radiation can make you very tired, and it did me from almost the 1st week. That is not the norm but neither am I. And I now think it may have something to do with what my activity level had been before the rads. I was not doing much and now hope I can get my energy back and start into a fitness program.
Some things that I think all radiation patients should know ahead of time that really helped me.
-Keep your body well hydrated. Drink MORE than 8 glasses of water a day, it really helps your skin to heal and keep moist.
-Do not use deodorant of any kind without getting approval from your radiation onc.
-Use unscented Dove or Ivory soap. Do not use anything with deodorant.
-Do not shave under that arm. I was able to use my electric razor in the 3rd week of treatment but only because the techs said my skin was doing so well. Right now I wouldn't DREAM of shaving there! OUCH!
-Do not use a washcloth or anything other than your hand to wash the area being treated. Also only pat your skin dry do not rub it with a towel.
-Biafine cream worked miracles for me. It's expensive; even with our prescription card we paid $47 for it! But it worked very well for me. I didn't try any of the others out there other than to use aloe vera straight from the plant a couple times a week.
-No kind of clothing is going to feel good at some point in your treatment. No bra, no t-shirt nothing. But you will find a way to make it work for you. I pretty much go without a bra most of the day unless I have to go somewhere like the store or my daughters school. But the last 2 weeks it has hurt me to wear one. And for the last week it has hurt me to even wear a t-shirt. But we all are different and it is temporary, thank God!
Now with that all said I am missing todays appointment because my daughter is home sick with an unexplained case of hives. She had it earlier in the week and was treated for it and it came back like gangbusters in the middle of the night. I couldn't take her to a cancer center with that not knowing what it was. And she wouldn't let me leave her with anyone. She's in agony so knowing I still have 6 treatments to go and will not finish on a Friday like planned is ok as long as I can be her mommy right now. That is the most rewarding thing in the world to me!
Love and hugs,