Finished my Radiotherapy and Treatment Feeling Lost.

I finished my last rads session yesterday all went well. it was a little sad as I also said a sort of goodbye to two lovely ladies I met (one was the lady who both had our ops on the same day) so we had a real connection we are all though, going to keep in touch and meet up again which is good.
I seem somewhat lost at the moment as apart from a booked telephone call from the oncologist in early June nothing else has been mentioned about follow-ups. I was given a leaflet stating my treatment was over and to where the treatment was applied along with a leaflet as to what to and not to do as I recover from the treatment.
Is that it - just waiting for them to contact me - what about other meds which I was told I would need to go on owing to taking Letrozole there is NO point in asking my GP as they have had no contact with me during any of my treatment impossible to even get to talk to them.

I just feel a little abandoned (which I know is normal) with no port of call for me to sail into. :frowning_face:

Poppy xx

Hi

i finished my radiotherapy about 2 months ago and i found walking out on the last day very difficult and i probably cried more that day than at any other time (apart from the original diagnosis).  i felt quite abandoned and similarly i was given a date for a telephone follow up some while afterwards. 

i think it is harder when all the treatment has finished because only then can you begin to process everything and dealing with questions from people like “what scans and check-ups will you have now” are difficult.  in reality it seems that until you have a mammogram a year after diagnosis no-one will be checking up on you and you just have to get on with life!  i am just starting a Moving Forward online course through Breast Cancer Now and i am looking forward to it

Hello Poppy

I can totally emphasize with you.  One part of the journey is finished but the journey still continues.

I’m thinking about doing the moving forward on line course.

Am happy to ‘chat’ if you want to …

 I don’t know anyone in same position as me and it is good not to feel alone.

Good luck with your ongoing recovery

@Anonymous  - I remember the feeling you describe when I finished my treatment, and I have seen many similar threads since. It is a shame that there is no support once we finish - the physical treatment might have finished but the mind and mental side is still racing and wanting answers. 

I don’t know if you have seen this article, various people recommended it to me and I’ve posted it before (apologies if I have sent it to you already) -

workingwithcancer.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/After-the-treatment-finishes-then-what.pdf

I decided to have some counselling after my treatment ended, to try to help me process what had just happened and I found it very useful. That might be something to look into?

@grannyp  - you also sum up well that after treatment feeling. People assume we are now “fixed” as if we had had a broken leg, but it’s not like that. I love your comment about wanting to grab life with both hands, if only this virus would go so we could get on with things! But in answer to your question, there is no “right thing” to do though after treatment, just whatever helps you best.

Evie xx

Hi Poppy

There is a huge sense of loss. You’ve been cocooned for so many months and suddenly that’s it: last radiotherapy treatment, a chance to ring a bell when it really isn’t the end of it all at all - and now left to your own devices. I remember feeling abandoned.

I can’t stress enough the brilliance of the article Evie has given you the link to. I read it frequently. Personally I think I did the Moving Forward/On course too soon. They had a cancellation and so I got a space within a month. But a month isn’t long enough to fully appreciate how different your life has become. So I did it again via Maggie’s 18 months on.

One thing to remember is that your breast care team is (or should be) there for life now. If you are wondering about hormone therapy, give them a ring. They’ll be able to explain why you are/are not having it. I completely agree with you about the gulf between GPs and hospitals. As soon as I’d been referred, my GP really didn’t want to know and one admitted she knew nothing about the side effects of chemotherapy. I was feeling so foul, I just let it pass but that’s unacceptable. I appreciated her honesty but she should either have made an effort to find out in order to help me, her patient, or referred me on to someone in the practice who did have the experience. After all, we are back in their hands now.

I’m going to (reluctantly) be a balloon-pricker now: you have finished radiotherapy but radiotherapy maybe hasn’t finished with you. It’s quite likely that in the coming weeks your breast muscles will feel the full impact of what I call the microwave effect. Mine started about two weeks after the last session. Ring your breast care nurse if it’s worrying you. Ask your GP for pain relief if you need it (if you had chemo as well, you may well experience neuropathic pain which can be treated differently from pain pain - and your GP CAN deal with that). 

I wish you all the best as you find your feet again. You may find you look at some things very differently now and that’s normal. Try to be patient with those friends who act as if it’s all over now and can be put behind you as a bad experience. It’s not their fault and really they think like this to make themselves feel better. It certainly isn’t all over. You need to re-establish a new sense of safety in your world and come to terms with the realities of breast cancer. This doesn’t mean obsessing over every lump and bump and terrifying yourself that it’s come back - it means coming to terms with the statistics but not letting them impinge on a happy, healthy life which statistically you have a strong chance of enjoying. I emphasise the word ENJOYING.

Be happy

Jan x