I am a couple of months away from my radiotherapy ( should be september). Two more cycles of tax to go first. I am due to have 15 rads plus 4 boosters.
But i have a few queries I would be grateful for advice on.
Firstly, when can i go swimming again, onc said not during chemo. I have vague recollection that i shouldnt during or after radiotherapy. Is that right? I really want to book center parcs for december with my husband and 2 boys, but want to enjoy the pool with them if possible.
Secondly, is there anything i should be doing now like putting cream on my breast? Creams seem to feature heavily on the rads threads.
Thirdly, how long does each appointment tend to take, roughly? Are we talking an hour? Two hours??
Fourthly, have you got any words of advice or tips? I think i am justtrying to focus on the next bit as a change from focussing on chemo!
Finally, how knackering have people found it, especially compared to chemo? Was it tiring at all? At first? Partway through or afterwards?
Not asking if it hurts in case people say it does, but if anyone wants to explain that its a doddle i will let you!
Hi Vickie
I have not been through rads myself, still got 3 chemo’s to get through yet.
But my mum in law had bc 9 yrs ago and I took her to most of her rads appointments…it didn’t take long, she was usually gone for 10 minutes.
She was not to tired afterwards( she never had chemo not sure if it makes a difference to how tired you get)
Her skin started to get sore towards the end of her rads(15 in all).
At the time of her dx she was 74…she’s still fighting fit now at 83.
Having been close to my mum in law when she was going through this i’m not apprehensive about the rads as surely it can’t be half as bad as chemo??
Hope this helps until someone else who can explain better comes long.
Chris x
I’m half way through Rads and it’s fine. I would say that the actual treatment takes about 3 minutes the rest of the time is lining you up. It doesn’t hurt but you have to keep very still and I always seem to get an itch!
I drive myself to the hospital, which takes about 40 mins and find that I’m fine to drive back. I do feel tired later in the day, but I think it’s because I usually do something afterwards. Take today I went looking for a new sofa, but did have a little sleep later!
I wouldn’t worry about the cream now, they do give you a big pot at your first appt. I put loads on twice a day and my skin looks fine.
Also drink plenty of water for some reason it dehydrate you, so take a bottle with you.
Don’t know about the swimming but the staff will be able to tell you.
finished my rads on 9th July. 15 then 5 boosters. Had previously had chemo and I can honestly say rads were a breeze after chemo. No pain at all and over in less than 10 minutes. The wait for the car park was worse than the rads !! Saw the oncologist once a week for a review to see how it was going.
Did find it tiring but some of that was probably the journey. 2 1/2 hours in total although the rads very quick. 1 thing worth bearing in mind is that the rads continue to work after you finish. I was told they take 2 weeks to build up and then continue to work for about 2 weeks after completion.
I used aqeous cream throughout although some say it makes little difference. A few days after I finished the skin round my nipple became very cracked and peeled, a bit like sunburn. I have some peeling under my breast but it’s not painful just a little uncomfortable. you can’t use deoderant, soap etc on the side being treated and you mustn’t shave under that arm.
I was told to stay out of the sun and not swim for 6 weeks after end of rads.
Hope this helps but please ask if you want any more info. Feel a bit like an old pro now !!!
Hope the rest of your chemo goes ok. Please rest assured rads are nothing to fear and just the final part of the journey we are going through.
I was lucky I had no problem with rads. I live near the hospital - it must be much more difficult and tiring when you have to travel distances daily for that length of time. I started slapping the aqueous cream on a week before I started rads and slapped it on heavily during. I am a sun lover so think that maybe helped but my boob didn’t even go red. The procedure took minutes and unlike oncology they were always on time. I think your body is still getting over chemo but the same advice – if you are tired – rest. Do what your body tells you to do and slap on the cream.
Because I had little reaction I did start swimming not long after finishing. Give yourself at least two weeks as the rads keep working after they have finished treatment.
Hi Vickie,
Sorry to answer you so late at night but can’t sleep again!
I’m due to start rads next week hopefully so I will keep you informed as I go if you like.
From your rads roving reporter as you kindly named me earlier!
I had a 4 year old and a 1 year old who was waking at 5am every day of my rads! I never felt tired at all. Make sure you drink lots of water. All hosps advise different re creams but mine gave me aqueous cream to use. You cant swim during rads or for 6 wks after i was told. Each session lasts about 5 mins but its the waiting time that can be long as they seem to get a long of machine breakdowns.
Hi K
What are the 5 boosters? after your 15 rads!
Vickie, l have just seen your boosters! l should be starting in October, but not been give a plan of them yet, l must ask! a lot of you seem to know how many rads you are having
Love
Sandra
I have just finished 35 rads to 3 areas spread over 7 1/2 weeks, and I would say apart from being tired from travel (commuting into central London during the heat wave) the first 4 weeks were pretty easy. In the last 3 weeks I got very sore and tired. So I would have thought 15 sessions would be very tolerable if your travel isn’t too difficult. Having said that, if your course is much shorter it may be that the radiotherapy in each session is stronger and the treatment is just condensed into a shorter time - I just don’t know - maybe someone else knows the answer to this?
Regarding swimming - we have a pool and as you can imagine I was desperate to get in it as the temperatures soared to 30F. I had several areas of broken skin that were very sore, and I didn’t go in the water until these had healed - about 10 days after finishing rads. That was a week ago - the techs told me to wait longer, but I haven’t had any problems so far. But we run our pool on low chlorine, and a public pool would be much stronger, so would probably irritate more if you do get some soreness.
As regards timing, I was at a private clinic so my experience may not be typical. I was usually at the clinic for about an hour, although often longer if the bcn or consultant wanted to see me - about once a week each. There were a couple occasions when the equipment broke down and there were very long waits.
The boosters are a different type of RT beam that is delivered just to the site of the tumour, not to the whole breast and lymph nodes. I had 8 boosters at the end of my treatment. I’m not sure, but I think it is only done for those with WLE and not mx. In my case it was aimed at the lumpectomy scar. It is more straightforward than the regular doses as requires less set-up.
You will have a planning session with your radiologist, probably when you have finished chemo, and they will go through it all with you then.
Hi Sandra,the boosters are targeted just to the site where the tumour was and the normal rads are to the whole breast.I don’t think everyone has boosters.
Hi, hope u dont mind me joining in,i havent posted for what seems a long time, just stayed in the background reading the amazing posts which have helped me through so far . Ive just completed x3 fec and x3 tax. My rads are due to start on the 11th of august. Ive got a planning meeting tomorrow 21st at uclh. They wanted me to go there on the 23rd as well for a ct scan but now have said they will try and combine the appointments. My onc said I would be getting 20 rads but now its changed this to 15 ???.
For me its back to Fear of the Unknown but I know its got to be done so tonight im going to compile a huge list of questions to throw at them. My friend is going to come with me for moral support incase I dont remember everything,“still got my chemo brain”. I will report back tomorrow to let you know what happened.
Sallyx
I had 25 Rads, no real problems. For me, compared to chemo rads were not hard. I was still exhausted from chemo/mx, but didn’t really notice additional tiredness during rads.
I used the aqueous cream religiously, which worked for me (I know others prefer the aloe vera) and was also recommended by my BCN to try a silk handkerchief next to my skin throughout, which I did-worth a try!
My hospital were helpful and generally gave me school hours appointments when possible, so I could drop/collect the kids, and at similar times each day. There were last minute changes to that and sometimes machines were not in use.
The actual doses take minutes- but the setting up can take a while-but mostly it didn’t take too long. Some days I was in and out, but on occasion the waiting times were the longest part, so take a decent book in case.
I was advised not to swim until 6 weeks after-when I started again after that time I had no problems, and it was brilliant for mobilising the ax cleared arm.
Advice on the rad dosage has changed in the last year or so - when I was diagnosed in Mar 09 I was told to expect 6 weeks of rads. When it finally came time to do them, December (I had chemo problems et al which delayed them) the advice had changed to 3 weeks. What they don’t say tho is it’s 3 weeks plus any ‘booster’ the onc thinks advisable, so I ended up with 8 additional days of being boosted, which was much quicker both set up wise and only involved 1 ‘zap’ when the initial doses were 3 ‘zaps’ for me (this varies I gather)
Bear in mind I’m in Scotland where we have different national standards to follow / different times to react to NICE advice, and it may explain your reduction in predicted dosage and actual.
Compared to what I’d been thru, rads weren’t too bad. The only really bad effect I had was skin loss in my armpit and under my boob despite copious cream application - I’m told this is more common with well endowed ladies - I’m a G cup so quite heavy, and I think the ‘overlap’ between boob and chest was too much for the skin to cope with bombardment. One of my radiologists said the rads like damp areas so make sure you’re not sweaty before you lie down would be my advice and if you do have problems in this respect, ask for Mepilex type dressings - these are much easier to cope with than trying to use plasters to hold dressings on and seemed to help the healing process quite well, particularly once the rads were over.
One ‘bright’ side to rads - whether it was my skin loss tho - is I’ve no hair under the armpit - my Greek onc did not understand my warped humour when I asked him to ‘do’ the other side on my last visit!!
Thanks Lulu, found that very interesting. I had a chat about my radiotherapy this morning, wish I’d seen this sooner!!
I’ve still got 3 Tax to go so won’t be starting the radiotherapy until November but it’s good to see some detailed information. I’m on for 15 treatments to my breast area and neck lymph nodes - had 27 out of 28 lymph nodes involved - and then will have 3 booster rads to the tumour site. Have still got the planning session so will be able to ask more detailed question then!!
Have got a huge pot of aqueous cream which I have been massaging into my scar, think I’ll extend it to the whole area in preparation!!
Thanks to everyone for advice and hope your treatments go well,
Gill x
I’m due to have 5 weeks of rads starting at the beginning of september. I asked the rads doc at my first appointment about swimming as I have been swimming twice a week throughout chemo (3xFEC 3XTAX) and want to continue. She ummed a bit and said the water could dry the skin and lead to problems but didn’t say a definite no. I too want to go on holiday shortly after rads and all she advised me was no sunbathing for a year and use total sunblock forever basically.
I have just finished a course of 15 Rads and it really was fine. It doesn’t hurt or is anything horrible, you don’t feel a thing. I had 6 Chemo treatments starting November 2009 and then a MX in April’10 and after all that the Rads is a walk in the park. My skin is a little pink and slightly sore but nothing terrible. I used masses of E45 cream for about a fortnight before and have continued using it at night and it soothes the skin and keeps it supple. It seems to have worked.
The first time you go they do what they call the “Marking up” and they use a simulator machine just like the real one but it doesn’t give you any radiation. They work out all the measurements and draw lines in felt tip all over the area. Don’t wear a new bra if you can help it as mine now has marks on it that haven’t washed out. They then tattoo dots on the outer points of the treatment area. It sounds worse than it is and doesn’t hurt much, only a little prick.
The actual treatment only takes (or at least mine did) about 20 seconds, it takes longer for them to line you up and get undressed. There may be delays with the machines or if there are any emergencies that need to be seen but I was usually there about half an hour in all.
I’m now feeling tired but nothing like when I was on Chemo, just have a rest in the afternoon but not for hours. I’m sure you’ll be fine; it’s the fear of the unknown that is the worst bit.
Good luck with it all and let us know how you get on. Have fun when you go to Center Parcs, we’ve had some great holidays there. Not sure when you can swim but I gather not during the treatment time.
xx