Hi all.
I finished my 20 sessions of rads on 4th June 2010 I though that rads was a ‘doddle’ after chemo was a bit reddish/brown but not too bad. Well, 2 weeks later and I was in agony, so much so that I was admitted to hospital on 20th June 2010 and put on morphine. I was discharged on Friday 25th June 2010 still with slight pain but def a bit better with a ton of pain killers and dressings to bring home.
Anyone else suffer from this, my onc says its not unheard of to have a reaction like this but not very common either. I did have a ‘bollos’(spelling?) on during treatment and was told that it was this that created the reaction.
Thanks
Jean
Oh that sounds awful - I’m really sorry to read about your experience.
How frightening for you.
I’ve no idea what a ‘bollos’ is - can you tell me?
I’m 3 weeks into 5 weeks of radiotherapy and just beginning to really feel it.
I had a reconstruction and just got used to it and now it’s starting to feel awful again.
I’m getting more worried about how I’ll cope with the next two weeks - any tips would be helpful.
Sorry not to be able to answer your question but sending you good wishes with this horrible treatment.
Hi
I finished rads just over 6 weeks ago. The actual treatment, I too found a doddle after chemo, but 3 weeks post rads finishing I experienced some of the worst pain ever - far worse than after my 2 surgeries. I also found a lump which had me on the phone to bc nurses. I was seen straight away by breast surgeon and was informed the ‘lump’ was a nodule on my ribcage brought on by the rads and that for the forseeable future I woudl have to keep any eye on my ribs. It is not uncommon for the rads to ‘inflame’ where surgery has been performed and ‘mimic’ the symptoms of bc that soem women have prior to their diagnosis ie. stabbing, itching, ache. She did tell me to look out for a rash that does not go away as well in future.
On a slightly brighter note she also informed me that apparetnly radiotherapy ‘freezes’ the small capilliaries in the breast and therefore a radiotherapied breast does not age after treatment. So whilst the other one heads south ad wrinkles as we get older your ‘zapped’ breast stays forever the age it was when you had treatment!
I hope both of you do not suffer too much - not sure what a bolles is so cannot help there but if you are suffering still keep talking to your team, we need all the reasurrance we can get.
Leigh x
aww, i am sorry that youve been so poorly! I had terrible splitting under my breast and a horrible angry rash. The hospital gave me dressings for it.
hope you feel easier soon
eva
Hi Jean,
I finished rads last December after chemo/surgery and I had a really bad reaction afterwards too. I had a mastectomy with no recon and I also had a bolus during rads. The bolus is basically a big dod of wax placed over the site having treatment. My Onc explained that it concentrates the radiation on the skin rather than a few cm below where they usually work, which is why it burns so badly. In my case the bolus was used because the cancer had already affected the skin of my breast at diagnosis.(Also the reason I chose not to have a recon.)
I did heal very quickly once the worst was over and now the only sign of the burns is a tanned area in the shape of the bolus. I used 100% Aloe Vera gel once the skin had stopped weeping. You might want to try it but check with your BCN that it’s ok.
Hope this helps, Jan xx