I’ve heard they can, and that sometimes it can be because you need to drink more water as it dehydrates us. Hopefully there’s others here that might know more. Wishing you better xx
Hi All hoping everyone is ok. I went to do a little bit of grocery shopping this morning and this tired me out . been feeling really tired all day and my boob is still red and hot. Glad to have another 3 days without Rads xx
Corrinna me too. A simple walk round town had me all breathless. Have managed to get a couple of litres of water down me and do feel a little better. Thanks for the advice xx
For those of you who have started radiotherapy and are concerned about your skin being pink over the Easter break, it may help to try the following:
- Wash the treated area with aqueous cream instead of soap if the skin is a bit sore;
- Rinse the treated area with cold water after showering or washing to help cool it down;
- Pat dry with a soft towel, slowly, very gently but thoroughly, paying particular attention to areas with folds of skin, such as armpit and area beneath boob;
- When dry, apply a lot of moisturiser and rub it in well, paying particular attention to nipple and areas with folds of skin that could rub against each other, then repeat at least once;
- Apply crystalline deodorant after moisturising;
- Moisturise the treated area at least three times a day , including after washing and immediately after each treatment before you get changed back into your clothes - fill a small jar or a travel cosmetic pot with moisturiser and take it with you to the hospital (put it in a plastic bag in case of leakage);
- When at home, wear loose baggy cotton tops without a bra for at least part of the day, also wear similar cotton nighties or pyjama tops in bed;
- If you don’t have any comfortable cotton bras, when going out, try wearing your most comfortable synthetic ones or a seamless crop top (available from Sainsbury’s or Asda) over a cotton vest (I can’t claim credit for this tip - it was suggested by Corinna!);
- If you have an itchy or sore nipple, try placing a couple of cotton wool make up pads over it and holding them in place with bra or crop top.
These things definitely helped me. I did get a slightly sore, itchy nipple towards the end of the whole breast rads, but the cold water, moisturiser and going bra-less definitely helped relieve it.
I hope this is of help, but as everybody seems to react differently to radiotherapy, I can’t guarantee these techniques will work for everyone. For example, if you are having boosters to certain areas such as the armpit (I didn’t) the effects of the radiotherapy on those areas will be greater. Also, I am not large (34C) so if you are, going bra-less around the house may not work as well for you.
If your skin starts to get very sore despite everything you are doing to prevent it, ask your radiographers for help as soon as possible. There are special gel products they can give you (e.g. Intrasite, also called Hydrogel) to relieve the soreness.
Jacquie48 - some slight pinkness is nothing to worry about as long as it isn’t sore. Try the suggestions in my post below to see if it reduces the pinkness. It’s a shame your break is only 3 days - most units are shut until Tuesday. At least it will be over sooner.
Jaynes1208 - know what you mean about denial, some days you just want to do something normal to take your mind off it. I also wander off onto other threads sometimes. I don’t find texting in the car easy either, as it takes twice as long (particularly when you are travelling on roads with horrible speed bumps). I also gave the radiographers a thank you card and some mini chocolate Easter eggs on Thursday. They probably had quite a few from other patients, as I saw one of them coming out of the staff room with a very large Easter egg! I hope the Easter break takes your mind off it anyway, and gives your skin chance to recover.
Katy - thanks for sharing your experience - that’s encouraging to know. I finished on Thursday after 23 rads, and have felt a bit more tired the last week or so, but it isn’t that bad. It hasn’t stopped me exercising every day, nor did it stop me walking more than a mile to find my diverted bus stop, then round the shops afterwards on Wednesday afternoon. Apart from the travelling to and fro every day, it has been a lot easier to cope with than chemotherapy.
Snail888 - don’t know about rads causing nausea (I wasn’t affected myself), or about Tamoxifen (I am on Letrozole - I only started taking it Monday though so it’s too early to say what lovely SEs I will get from that). I did make sure I was drinking enough throughout radiotherapy, so this may have made a difference. If it is the rads causing the nausea, you would expect it to ease off over the Easter break, but if it doesn’t, it suggests it is something else. Sorry I can’t help on this, but hope someone else can.
Corinna - for some reason I am not as badly affected by fatigue as I expected, at least not yet (I’m not still on the steroids, honest!). Keeping well hydrated and daily exercising throughout radiotherapy may have helped. I have been warned to take it easy over the next few weeks as fatigue could be a delayed effect, so we’ll have to see…
DJD - can’t give a definitive answer on this I’m afraid because I had WLE, but hopefully there are ladies with similar types of boobs who will be able to advise.
One thing I can say is that radiotherapy can cause the treated area to become itchy and sore, so wearing anything likely to rub the skin and make it worse is probably best avoided. For example, they tend to advise us to go bra-less whenever possible while we’re at home, to reduce irritation and let the air get to the treated area.
Before you start it is therefore best to discuss it with your BCN as Corinna says, or with the radiographers, and be guided by them as to which boob is best to use. Perhaps you could take both along with you to show them. I hope you manage to find an answer to your question, and good luck with your treatment next week.
Hi All ,Thanks for advice OldDawn 63… I had a fall in the house yesterday morning and now have friction burns on both elbows and bruised knees on top of everything .also today all aches and pains at the top of my arms and neck area .dont know if that will be due to the fall or the Letrozole…looking forward to finishing my radiotherapy next Friday…Im fed up of it now and just want to start getting back to normality if thats possible…feeling wrecked xxx
Hi all,
cant sleep tonight, so checking in.
Snail888, I have had nausea and have found that it’s in the mornings, when I haven’t eaten or drunk for a few hours. I need to drink gallons at the moment to avoid nausea and headaches. I’m trying to drink at least three litres of water, four if I can, plus tea each day. Otherwise I feel sick, get a headache and my lips go sore and crusty, as well as my skin on my boob being more tender.
And im slapping on the moisturiser at least three times a day. We went out for a while today and when we got back I could feel that my skin was drying out. I had to go and slather on the cream to stop the soreness.
My my worst thing at the moment is stressing about my heart. Because it’s left side and they’ve struggled with set up to avoid it, I’m a bit paranoid about any twinge, cough or sensation in my chest! Terrified my heart will be affected and that will be something else I’ll have to deal with long term. My logical brain tells me it’s fine, but when I’m feeling low it plays on my emotions a bit!
Anyway, now I have got that off my chest (no pun intended), im going to try to sleep! So flipping tired, but can’t sleep! How does that work?!! Lol!
xxxx
Corinna - sorry to hear about your fall, and hope you are feeling a bit better now. At least you will soon be finished with radiotherapy, and be able to move on. In the meantime, it is best to take it easy until you have recovered from the fall and the fatigue starts to ease.
Jaynes1208 - hope you managed to sleep in the end and that the nausea has eased (Could it be the hormone tablets? Have a look at the posts on the Hormone Therapy threads). I think LadyB is right about anxiety making your mouth dry. The water bottle is a good idea, you could also try dry mouth spray. If the nausea and anxiety are still a problem tomorrow, get some advice from the hospital. In the meantime, please be careful if you are drinking gallons to deal with the nausea, particularly if you are not eating much and/ or have diarrhoea. Yes, you do need to drink at least 2 litres a day, but it is possible to overdo it, so if you think you are, the dry mouth spray may be the answer to the dryness. If you drink too much without eating to replenish the salt your body needs you can develop sodium deficiency (hyponatremia). It happened to me twice during chemotherapy, because of the extreme nausea I had with FEC which the anti-sickness medication did not touch. I ended up being admitted to hospital both times. The warning signs are confusion/ difficulty communicating, uncontrollable shaking and blurred vision. Take care, and don’t let it happen to you.
hi everyone thanks to you all for sending me some encouragement…im feeeling a bit better today and managed to go out for a walk with a friend.
yes Pippa not long for us now! really looking forward to finishing …it feels like its been a long haul .
Jayne Im getting radiotherapy on my right side and i worry as they said it would clip my lung so I know what you mean but what choice did we have? we had to have to radiotherapy but we know its not without its own risks …just have to hope that we will be ok and been told problems are rare so odds on we will be fine!.
wishing everyone a good week take care of yourselves lots of luv xxx
Jaynes1208, I was told to take my Arimidex (Anastrazole) at night to reduce the chance of nausea, not sure if this is relevant to you. I have had occasional nausea briefly but it has passed now. I am experiencing more bone pain from the tablets now, I have arthritis pain anyway in my thumbs, and other places, which is more of a problem now. It is surprising how much we use our thumbs!
I’m more convinced the radiotherapy is making me nauseous. 4 days off I felt great. Other theory is the coffee from the coffee shop so I’m going to avoid that from tomorrow x
Corinna - I was told the same, that they couldn’t avoid clipping the lung. It was one of the main reasons I had second thoughts. But I went ahead in the end and have not noticed any effects on my breathing yet. All you can do is hope that the radiotherapy does the job it is supposed to and any side effects are minimal.
Snail - sounds like the radiotherapy or the coffee then! I am taking Letrozole but haven’t had any nausea from it. It’s early days though, as I’ve only been taking it for just over a week. I haven’t had any significant pains either but I have noticed my joints are creaking more! I am also taking Adcal tablets twice a day to help reduce the effects on my bones.
My first radio is tomorrow - what’s best to wear?
I wear trackies a soft no seam bra and a t shirt. Today I went in a vest, hoody and trackies not bra. Xx
Hi Ladies,
Thanks Helena, Dawn and Corina for the support. I did get some sleep, and pushed the negative thoughts down! I know they’ll be back sometimes. Just need a little perspective.
Just because I haven’t had enough going on, I thought we would have a bout of food poisoning in this house yesterday!!!
We decided to have a Chinese takeaway on Monday night, as a treat at the end of a nice relaxed weekend, before going back to rads. 4am yesterday the husbando started from both ends, 6am I joined him!
This culminated in me having an Elvis moment and passing out on the toilet, falling and bashing my head, cricking my neck and twisting a wrist! Luckily no hazardous material was left by then, so no cleaning up needed!!! I haven’t passed out for years and can only think it was because I was already feeling a bit floopy from treatment. Now have a bit of an egg on my head, but wrist and shoulder are ok.
As I have to travel an hour each way to the hospital, I couldn’t go yesterday! Further panic! They were great and assured me it will not be a problem, and have added one onto the end of treatment. Fortunately, I was able to get there today, even though I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck!
I havent started any tablets yet. Don’t know which ones I will be on. They took blood to see whether I am menopausal because it’s difficult to tell because of my gynae problems and surgeries. Also waiting for a delay scan. Once that’s done I’m guessing the onchologist will decide about drugs.
And the nausea (other than the food poisoning!) seems to be linked to the rads, as it stopped over the weekend while I had a break. The water and carbs definitely help with that, as does not doing too much!
I always wear a cotton sleeper bra and comfy, easy to take off/put on top. Usually with leggings. Comfort is the main thing I think. And I get cold, which is unlike me usually, so lots of layers.
Xxxx
Jamey,
Good luck for tomorrow. You won’t need it though, it will be fine, you’ll smash it! Xxx
Blooming autocorrect, that should have said Jacey!
Good luck with yur first Rads sesson tomorrow Jacey. I just usually wear my jeans . They never ask you to take your shoes off or anything .just have to take everything off the top half. I always wear one of my very soft crop top bra which I bought at ASDA…withoutfasteners or anything to dig into my skin. I wear a 100% cotton camisole top underneath the bra so I have cotton next to my skin…hope the treatment goes well for you take care xx