i had radiotherapy in 2004 after my first diagnosis in 2003. It certainly didn’t stop me getting breast cancer again in 2022. I got very bad burns and am extremely glad I could only have it once. I didn’t like going down in a lift to a subterranean area, a changing room which consisted of a curtained off area in full view of the waiting area where you could see the bare legs of the person as they put their gown on for what was probably prostate cancer radiation treatment. Also I had a black plastic bag to put my clothes in. They blamed me for the burns even though I did exactly what they told me to do. I researched radio and discovered there was no standard treatment for radio burns nor any randomised controlled research on how effective any of the skin advice was…
That was 20 years ago. Things have changed since then, not least the research into and development of hyperfractionated rads, which is what I had with zero negative impact. I had mine in the NHS so the biggest problem was machines breaking down, adding to the wait time but I have no complaints. The staff were all professional and kind. A dear cousin of mine is having rads on private health insurance at the moment and says they are always on time so I guess you get what you pay for. @JoanneN did say no local recurrence for 6 years so theoretically getting a new tumour 19 years later fits in to that. Non-theoretically, it absolutely effing sucks.
My treatment was at Barts Hospital. When I went there recently they had demolished a lot of it and the radiotherapy bit was still subterranean but had moved to a concrete monstrosity of a building with very rude people ordering you about with no social skills whatsoever. That’s my main bugbear with the NHS, not enough focus on the emotional side, too much on processing people as quickly as possible with a load of machines that one is put into or upon. And gowns that have broken fastenings so you expose your bottom to the patients in the waiting room. That was at Guy’s in the CT scan department the Tower Block bit. They asked me whether I was on viagra there, and I was so shocked I said I don’t have a penis! Now I know viagra is used for heart disease and can be prescribed to women too.
Seagulls
I’m sorry that you had those experiences - I had mine on the NHS and everyone was lovely , the staff were very professional . The staff called me when they were ready and took me to the little changing room that was attached to each treatment area - with no access to the general public or other patients so my valuables were safe . I put on my hospital gown and went through the door straight into the treatment room. The longest wait that I had for a treatment was about 30 mins . I did have some hot red skin and swelling for a while but my skin never broke down and I’ve had more painful sunburn to be honest .
Didn’t know that about Viagra ! Xx
I put all my details into predict. At the moment I dont know the full number of lymph nodes but there’s definitely 1 with macrometastasis. So I just put in the 1 lymph node and if I add chemo,I get 3٪ extra for life expectancy. I experimented with adding extra nodes and for each 1 I add, an extra 1% is awarded. Is this really how they will decide my treatment? Seems a bit vague. I guess I will find out when I go for results in 3 weeks. What percentage do they use as a minimum before offering chemo?
Mine was 3% benefit for chemo and i was strongly advised to have chemo…but thats just statistics from your own type of camcer…not for you as an individual…so could be 1% or 99% benefit to you as an individual…we just dont know…i asked my onc and they said although predict is a tool that can be used …they also use other indicators …your proposed treatment plan will be a MDT decision …wishing you well
Thanks for your reply. Waiting is so hard! Hope it’s all going well.