Hello all,
I will be starting Radiotherapy in the near future and wonder if anyone has used ‘Bio oil’ during their treatment. I have used it daily since op and found it really soothing and has help to make scars more supple, just wondering if anyone has used it during DXT?
thanks
Gill
I didnt use it during the rads, I used the cream the hospital gave me, aqueous cream. I used (and still am) bio oil afterwards on my scars and its really good.
Shirley
Hi: I used bio oil on my scar and it was OK, didn’t find the aqueous cream that clever but found great cream at Neals Yard Pharmacy, is there one near you? or check on line. It is a burns cream containing aloe vera, urtica (made from nettles would you believe!) and lavendar. It took away the heat, pinkness and soreness within a couple of days. It’s about £6 per tube.
I can only say it worked for me!
Best of luck.
LOL
Julia
Hi
I used bio oil after surgery and as you have found it was really good on the scars.
Once I started Rads I used E45 cream. I did use the oil one day and the nurse commented that it was making my skin ‘too wet’. I didn’t query her, just reverted to the E45. I found the rads team very very helpful so I would just ask at your rads planning if you really want to use it.
Andie
Thanks for the comments and tips.
We have a branch of Neal’s Yard locally so I will investigate the burns cream as I like to use te ‘hippy herby’ options!
Gill x
The radiothrapy nurse told me that aqueous cream was better and cheaper than E45 and that Aloe vera gel was great as long as it’s more than 99% pure. I showed the oncologist the Bristol Cancer Centre Radiance cream yesterday and she said that it looked fine and wouldn’t stop me using it though she could not endorse it. I’ve probably paid through the nose for soemthing when aquesous cream is just as good but I felt like a bit of pampering and a pretty smell is so much more of a treat. The key factor is apparently the metal content as this diverts the x rays from where they should be going. My last "normal/non booster session is Monday and I’m pretty messy and sore under my arm but they said I could only used the Flamazine after Monday as even if I used it today and Saturday only and kept it off on Sunday the silver content would stay in my skin. The crux seems to be the metal content. I don’t know if bio oil is pure. I’ve certainly found it very good in the past and I’ve been using it on my face which has gone very dry since chemo. I did get hydrocortisone when my skin started to look bad but they said to avoid its usage on broken skin. I can use the flamazine during the boosters to repair my skin and they say it is very good. Hannah
Very interested in this - I noticed one of the ingredients in aqueous cream is sodium lauryl sulphate, which is a skin irritant. I’m currently a keen user of bio-oil (since before surgery), and although I’ve been given a tube of aqueous cream, I want to find something which is unperfumed and non-metallic that doesn’t contain SLS before I actually start rads (I’m anticipating that I’ll have a reaction, as the oncologist did say I’d be likely to because of breast size).
I’ll definitely check out the Neal’s Yard stuff - it sounds lovely!
Yep, sodium lauryl sulphate is not the greatest. It is in many conventional cosmetics, shampoos and toothpastes. It is added to make products lather up but as it is an industrial de-greaser I leave you to draw your own conclusions. It was my dentist who warned me off it ages ago. She said that, altho’ there was no hard evidence yet, she and some other dentists consider that it accelerates gum recession.
I was given aqueous cream in the rads dept I attended but decided to give it a body swerve (becaude of its sodium lauryl sulphate ingredient)and use organic aloe vera gel instead. You can also use aloe vera straight from the plant itself.
I might give bio oil a go on my armpit scar for starters.
edinburghperson
Hi I had a bag reaction after my rads in march like prickly heat when you have had too much sun sore and itchy .The BC nurse gave me some cream called Flamazine for burns it was great. Hope this helps Hugs Abby.
I’ve also wondered whether some of the aftersun products out there might be good - soothing burning and all that!
I’ve ordered some of the unperfumed green people stuff (saw it on the Penny Brohn site) to use on my skin. Having gone to the trouble over the past 5 or so years to move away from SLS, and petrol-derivative containing stuff, and going to a natural deodorant, I worry that I might have more of a reaction if I suddenly start using products with those sort of additives. I’ve also got an aloe vera plant, so I should have some ‘freshly squeezed’ gel from it, if I can work out how to do it! Due to start cooking next Thursday, so that gives me a bit of time to gen up.
I’ve heard of this flamazine cream, but it’s got a silver compound in it, so it breaks the ‘no metal’ rule whilst being zapped. If I get problems, though I’ll be looking out for it once I’ve finished treatment.
Hello, I seem to be junping into a long conversation re skin care but wonder if this might help. I have recently had RT (finished 8th July) and was advised that Aloe Vera was not appropriate to use during treatment. For post RT I would guess it is ok. To get the gel straight from the plant is easy to do - take off a leaf and run your fingernail down the side so that it splits then you will see the pure gel and just need to gently squeeze or push it out. I used this on my son when he had a skin rash that didn’t respond to more ‘chemical’ preparations and it worked wonders.
Hattie xx
All radiographers have their own very personal ideas as to what is okay to use and what isn’t. LOTS of radiographers approve the use of aloe vera gel as long as it is the 99.9% one. I used Emu Oil (available on the Internet) which is used in Australian hospitals for burns and rads patients. It worked extremely well and I didn’t have a terrible reaction from rads despite 5 weeks of it, being very fair skinned and having large boobs! They can’t say they “approve” something without a trial being done by the Chief Radiographer - who always seems in most hospitals to be too busy to approve anything!
Sounds promising, Redders! Does the emu oil cost a lot? I’ve got a large bust and burn very easily at the best of times.
It’s really confusing trying to find alternatives to the aqueous cream that have some kind of track record. If emu oil is used for RT patients in Australia, then potentially that could be the way to go. I can understand all the RT staff being reluctant to recommend anything other than aqueous cream because that’s the cheapest thing going, and if there’s any expectation that another (more expensive) cream or gel they recommend has to be NHS funded that couldn’t be justified when they need every penny to fund other things like herceptin and tamoxifen. It’s just a shame they don’t have the ability to suggest other products if you want to self-fund something which doesn’t have stuff like petroleum derivatives etc in it.
Hattie - I’ll try doing that with an aloe leaf - I deliberately bought a well-established plant so I’d have decent sized leaves to use.
Hi ladies,
just picked up on this thread when I noticed emu oil mentioned. I finished rads 2 weeks ago and used combination of aqueous and emu oil-oil at night as it stays on your skin longer and cream in the morning before I went for treatment, and have continued using both since. Apart from a bit of mild irritation in the crease my skin has remained in good condition. The emu oil is not cheap but you do not need a lot of it as it goes a long way.
Good luck to all still on treatment.
Lyn x
Hi ladies,
I’ve just picked up on your thread about aloe vera,
I’ve found an aloe vera gelly say its 100% aloe vera, so i’ve ordered a tube, Its made by Forever.
I start my rad on 19th Aug so mite start using it before, when it arrives
Will keep you updated on any good point and bad.
Keep smiling
sunset
Yes, the instructions which I AM following from the RT dept say to be using aqueous cream (which I’m not going to use) twice a day in the run-up to treatment, but none for 1 hour before treatment. I’m using a lavender gel moisturiser in the evening as it sets me off to sleep nicely, but using unperfumed lotion in the mornings.
Found a UK site where they do lots of different, lovely-sounding emu oil products, including one for scars.
Advised and used acqueus cream. I liberally, carefully, religiously applied it. Fairish skin, but it did nothing. I burned dreadfully, I was on a high dose of antibiotics and had to wear a thick pliable dressing, bit like a miniature mattress. I shed my skin like a lizard.
Imoved after chemo and mastectomy. Had I still lived in Somerset I would have bought radiance cream. The rads that I had would have been exactly the same.
One reason Iburned so badly might have been the bolus, that was applied.
Sorry not to have been more helpful but I wouldn’t like to offer advice.
Kathy
Sorry you had such a horrible experience with the rads, Kathy. How many weeks did you have? I’ve got 3 weeks plus 1 week booster, starting Thursday this week. Don’t know if I’ll have a bolus or not - they’ve not said anything (and to be honest, it never occurred to me to ask).
I’ve ordered some radiance gel, as I’ve heard good reports of it.
I think you are right, though that the rads are pretty much the same wherever you get treated.
Will report back on burning etc once I get cracking on this phase of treatment. Whatever I end up using during actual treatment, I will be applying with a heavy hand, as that seems to be the best way of it!
Meant to say that the emu oil isn’t cheap but it lasts for months as you need so little. I still use it sometimes on my scar for lymph node removal if it gets rubbed by my bra. My husband is using it on his arthritic shoulder - apparently it can be used for sunburn too!
Contrarymary,
I’ve only heard good things about radiance gel too.
I had 20 rads, 4 zaps each time, 2 with bolus.Where I was bolus free Ihad no trouble at all, just a bit dry towards the end. Also I found the exit point very itchy, but again a little dry.
Hopefully you’ll have no problems.
The constant appointments were very tiring, I longed for the weekends just to relax and rest.
I’ll be thinking of you on Thursday.
Kathy