Some of you may recognise me from the primary section.
My Mum (78)was recently diagnosed with primary and secondary BC, with spread to bones and lungs. Four days ago she had a single blast of radiotherapy to her spine and to a skin lesion on her abdomen (think they said something about electrons for that?)
Anyway although she was Ok for 24 hours she has been feeling in more pain and wretched for the last three days. They told her at the hosp that it would only last for a day. How long has this lasted for other people?
She is due some more radio on Monday, to her thigh and upper arm and is saying she isn’t going to have it as it has made her feel worse. I have explained that it should get better shortly. Any ideas on timescale?
I had radiotherapy to my pelvis and T11 in October 2009 and was told it would get worse before it got better. Timescales did vary from Radiographer to Radiographer from between a couple of days to up to 10 days, but I was in a great deal of pain with my spine for about 5-7 days but havn’t had any problems since. Unfortunately the radiotherapy didn’t work as well for my pelvis.
Thank you so much for that info, Linda. I have told mum that yours took a week to settle down and this has reassured her. She is a lot brighter this morning
I am sorry to hear that the rads did not help your pelvis and I hope they have been able to help you with the pain
I had radiotherapy to my lower spine for bone mets at the end of Oct.09. Had dreadful pain and weakness, which only slowly got better by Xmas. Was told that it can take up to 8/12 weeks for things to get back to normal, depending on size of area done I think. Sorry forgot to say I am 63yrs old.
Hope things improve for your Mum.
ChrissyM
Hi Louise, just wondered if your mother was given anti sickness tablets and short course of steriods to start the day of the radiotherapy.
I had radiotherapy on L1 of spine, just one blast and was given those pills, told to expect to feel poorly for about a week. I didn’t feel too bad, this could have been because of the preventive tablets.
Might be useful to mention these if they were not given last time.
thanks for this, no she was not given anything and they do not think the radio has done any good so they won’t be doing any more.
She has moved onto Herceptin and had a bad reaction to that too. She ended up having the GP out and getting Ondansatron. I am going to make sure she has all the meds BEFORE the next Herceptin!
It’s such a contrast to my own experience of chemo treatment for primary BC, when everything was organsied very well