radiation #16. ok, well, now there are some side effects that are quite unpleasant. the radiated side of my chest area and below the underarm, where i had the sentinel node biopsy, is very tight and hurts to stretch. i do stretches every day, but now it's very tight. my skin looks fine--no redness, no evidence of radiation. i see dr. rost tomorrow (i'm bringing him cookies because i heard that when i brought a big bag of photography magazines to one of the techs who is a photographer, dr. rost thought it was cookies and was disappointed) and will ask him about this tightness. he told me today that the last week of radiation, i will be having 7 boosts in the tomotherapy machine. that means the radiation will be focused only on the tumor site, not the entire chest area.
i never felt like chemo was hurting me. i could imagine the chemicals killing off cancer cells that were growing and dividing. but radiation doesn't feel friendly. i can't help but imagine it not only killing the growing and dividing cancer cells, but also harming areas of my body where the radiation really isn't supposed to go, or giving me leukemia in the future. i hope my sense of radiation is outdated and superstitious.
who knew hula hooping could be such a workout!? especially since i really haven't gotten the hang of it yet. any five-year-old kid can do it! i shall persevere!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
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4 comments:
hulu hoop on the Wii - it'll kick your butt :)
The tightness is very normal and in fact, when women have expanders for reconstruction, the doctors recommend expanding even more to help stretch the skin before radiation. It also helps keep it stretched. Pretty icky but there it is.
The skin will loosen and become supple after radiation. Are you tanning yet? I still have my cinnamon colored right boob :)
Halfway - I can't believe it! I'm cheering you on from in here MD!
Hugs,
Sharon
dear sharon, no wii for me! this is the real hula hoop! no tanning or redness. my doc said that with tomotherapy, those side effects aren't common. just the tightness. glad to know that's typical. i sure do miss MD, especially annapolis and the eastern shore! xoxo
Glad to see things are going somewhat well. I had the same feelings about radiation during my treatment. At least, I wasn't sure it was doing anything. But later on, you definitely know it was doing something! :)
I ask them the same thing everyday - I'm on #13. I'm starting to feel the fatigue or maybe it's just depression:( Can't wait to get back to the "new normal" when this is over...xoxobises, G
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