heelllloo
warm nights, aqueous cream and stingy, ichy skin in the end had to sleep with no top on, redness is starting to calm down and yes the firmness and swollen feeling seems the norm from what the rads girls told me and calms down as the skin settles. i was down in Hampshire (boyfriend lives there) start of the weekend but then came back up to London weather was so fab and it makes such a difference doesn’t it. lit the bbq two nights on the trot and drank a little too much grape juice. this week its been wonderful not having to travel to radiotherapy and i feel like i am a naughty girl , not working and not attending some sort of treatment. I took an antihistamin (spelling) to help with the itching and it did seem to work.
hugs rhi xxx
Hi All
Hope you are not all having withdrawal symptoms from not having to go to hospital every day.
My GP confirmed I had an infection from the burn so I am now onon two lots of antibiotics for two weeks which upset my stomach. Infection has developed into a lump which my GP says could burst - lovely.
However, as I had a very high temperature I didn’t suffer any hot flushes or night sweats so somethinggood came out of it. However as temperature has gone down they are now creeping back.
Hope you are all having a good week.
Lynn
boy that sounds sore and uncomfortable, my broken skin has healed thankfully i was told the first day it cracked not to use the aqueous cream as while it moisturises it can also encourage infection. its very strange not having to rush about keeping appointments. though i can’t believe how much i am aching, today has been truly awful wasn’t sure if its because the temp outside dropped a bit today and it was a bit chilly this morning even when having a flush.
Lynn hope infection clears up quickly xx
Morning everyone!
Cass - I hope you enjoyed your retail therapy. I could do with some of that but am broke at the moment 
Still, I’m planning my annual trip to the WOMAD festival, which should be great.
Sandra - I hope your rib pain is going and the N. Wales weather continues to be good to you.
Rhian - I’m glad your skin is calming down and you had a good weekend. Sometime too much grape juice is just what is needed! I know what you mean about feeling like a naughty girl - I’ve started a bit of work, but some days I’m still feeling soooo tired that I’ve done nothing at all. Boy, does the guilt creep in!
Lynn - sorry to hear about your infection. It sounds really sore! I do hope the anitbiotics knock it on the head pronto.
The weather looks set to be good for the next few days, so I’d best get into town to buy some factor 50.
Keep well, everyone
Phili x
Ouch Lynn, hope the antibiotics are kicking in and all with sore , itchiness are having a better time of it.
It’s offficial, I have binned the cabbage ! Whoop whoop, rib pain has disappeared ,don’t know if that will be back ,am just sporting a bad spotty look at the mo so can’t complain.
Think the weather forecast is great over the next two days so will def be buying more factor 50.
Hey Phili, no guilt allowed, we have been through a hell of a lot, rest up when you need to and try not to worry about work, take care all.
Sandra x
Hi ladies, hope you’re all well after rads. I’m soooo sore in a couple of places and the skin has blistered/peeled off. Wasn’t given any dressings so will ring advice line when it opens and get gp to give me whatever I get told I need.
Lovely afternoon yesterday - met up with a friend and we went to see Calendar Girls (great show, highly recommended) then strolled round Covent Garden for a while and had coffee. So nice to have a pretty normal day, then found raw skin when I got home and felt a bit of pain!
Also, got appt with occy health on 11th so hope they let me go back to work, p/time at least.
Hope no-one else is having this prob - Lynn hope yours is improving now with antib, Sandra I may need to go and buy a cabbage…
Enjoy the fab weather,
Pat x
Hi i can believe a week after i finshed my rads i am so sore, not skin sore but aching, but determind to buck myself up for the weekend.
Pat, have heard calendar girls is good mught try and get in to see it. the dressing i got were called ‘Mepilex Transfer’ the are soft silicone sheets about A5 in size and made of a very thin foam, it is slightly sticky on one side and just incredible, you don’t need any plasters etc the whole things sticks to your skin, but is so gentle and stops just under the boob getting more sore .
off to Hampshire tomorrow so not on here until early next week
have a fab weekend
rhian x
Hi,
Finished today! I have really suffered with my skin, it broke up fairly early. They have taken a swab and given me a large dose of antibiotics and advised pain killers.
I have been given “Mepiflex” and what a relief. It comes in various sizes and can be cut for small patches of bad burns.
Radiotherapy has not been the walk in the path I expected.
Andie and Jo, I’m not feeling elated its over. I’m feeling very low and very tearful. I had a panic attack during treatment today and suddenly felt so frightened.
Iwas going to see “Billy Elliot” tonight but just couldn’t face it, so stayed here and had a quiet night in.
I’m going, hopefully to have a quiet few days now.
Enjoy the sunshine and have agood weekend,
Kathy
Whoopity whoop, day 10 post rads ! Should be on the up now… most bizarre thing happenened to my nipple yesterday…omg I was like a snake…the whole top layer of skin sort of sloughed off…looks pink and perky now so am not complaining,just wondering if it stops there or is going to continue…anyone else had this ? Gosh the things we talk about…lol.
Hope you are all enjoying the sun, I’ve actually been out in it most of the day and look so much better for a bit of colour, slapped on the factor 50 on and around the affected area and had that covered but do feel all the better for a bit of sunshine…this might be all we get !
Just having some Pimms now, very refreshing and enjoying the evening sun in the garden.
Pat, go get that cabbage !
Kathy, sorry you are feeling down,end of treatment is a lot to get your head around and it affects us all in different ways,have you got a good bcn that you can talk to? You have always got us lot on here…don’t be a stranger.
Sandra x
Hi all you babes, how you doing? The sunny weather is certainly welcome, although just a bit too hot for me today. Kathy, I’m sorry you’re feeling down, I’m a bit like that myself at the mo. I think that now the active treatment is finished, it’s the first time I’ve actually relaxed a bit and now feel like I’m a bit overwhelmed. I think having the probs with skin after rads doesn’t help, and maybe the Tamoxifen is kicking in with me, too. Whatever it is, I hope it passes soon for both of us. Sandra, a cabbage leave wouldn’t do the trick I don’t think! I’ve started another thread asking for advice as I was worried that skin wasn’t healing but apparently it takes about a week so, I’ll see how it goes. Well, no hospital appts this week at all - whoopee - that hasn’t happened for a while. Hope everyone else is getting on okay - Andie how you doing - will pm you. All the best, Pat x
Oh dear Pat…post cabbage stage … I have got a red line couple of inches long under my boob in the crease of my skin but it hasnt broken open and is dry,am hoping it will just start improving…will have to keep an eye on it, hope your cream and dressing sorts yours out.
I have had to pot up 105 pepper plants that I have grown from seed…very therapeutic,find my greenhouse a relaxing place to be, but a tad hot, best in the morning or evening…am just trying to enjoy being off the treatment treadmill and making the most of the sunshine, long may it continue !
Sandra x
Hi All! I hope you’re all enjoying the weather. I’m aiming to work mornings and see what comes in the afternoon. I was taken out for lunch yesterday then slept all afternoon, which was all great.
I can echo what Cass says about feeling a bit overwhelmed, though. I’m feeling rather low too, not sure what to do with myself, and rather frustrated with my low energy levels. I’m counting down the days to my appointment with the surgeon as my knotty boob is continuing to get harder & knottier by the day. I suppose the anxiety about that is tapping away under the surface.
And, to top it all I went to renew my vehicle licence and found my mot is REALLY out of date. Panic, panic! I’ve booked it in with the garage but not sure what’s going to happen about the mahoosive gap. Oh, well, at least the sun is shining.
Take care all
hugs
Phili x
Hi,
Thank goodness the sun is shining. I’m not quite as down as I have been, but I’m still very sore. My skin looks an absolute mess.
My energy levels are low too. Each day I plan what I’m going to do the next day and don’t get halfway through the list.
Last night I went to bed really early, I just couldn’t keep awake. I woke up and got up about 4. I went back tosleep at 7 for a couple of hours.
We’ve been out for a drive,enjoying the Kent countryside and I’m exhausted again.
Hope nobody else is suffering after rads.
Love Kathy
Hello Ladies
Sorry, i’ve been a bit quiet, but we decided to have a last minute get-a-way with the kids to celebrate the end of my treatment! We booked it a couple of weeks ago on the internet and got a bargain! We went and hired a caravan down in North Devon and the weather was so beautiful that we could have been in the Med!!! The Views were abolutely stunning and the camp site had it’s own private beach that we literally had all to ourselves! We just had the best time, real quality time with the kids and it made me realise that our lives are so busy all the time that we don’t do things like that often enough!
I’ve never been on a caravan holiday before and it’s another one of things I wanted to tick off the list before I, you know what!!!Since having BC, i’ve adopted a real ‘S*d it, life’s too short’ attitude, and we decided to take the kids out of school for a couple of days and stay there a bit longer and make the most of this gorgeous weather! I had to be very careful though with the old factor 50 and keep my left arm out of the sun completely (so terrified about lymphodema) especially on our boat trip, that’s the worst, wind burn!!! Still a bit sore after rads so kept chest well covered. Think i’ve turned the corner though as now I’m just itchy! Underarm still bit sore but it must be where it rubs on bra! Oh well, here I am back to reality, kids at school, husband at work and me feeling sorry for myself again!! Still it was nice while it lasted and think the break did us all good!
Hope everyone is ok!
Jo
Hi Ladies.
Jo it sounds like you had a wonderful time.
I had an appointment with my oncologist this morning and went with a long list of questions, mainly because for the last few weeks I have been feeling really low, and paranoid that the BC was already back. I could see all sorts of marks and lumps which in my head were the beggining of Skin Mets and I thought I could feel a lump on my Non BC side. She had the patience of a saint and allayed all my fears. She thinks the lumps and bumps have probably always been there - I have just never noticed, and the lump is my rib!
She wants to see me again in 6 weeks time to see how I am getting on with the Femara that she has prescribed for the next 5 years. After that the appointments will gradually be further apart. Oh Joy!! I feel as if I have been given my life back, in fact I have just booked a holiday for us in Dorset in a few weeks time.
I hope everyone else is doing OK
Andie
Hi ladies,
Andie and Jo, Ithink a break is such a good idea after what we’ve been through. I’m planning a trip to Spain, one week with John and the other a girlie week at the endof September.
My skin problems are getting worse. The doctor has given me some stronger painkillers, but can’t give me anything to put on the burns.
Ihave found this part of the treatment really hard. Just glad its all over.
Babysitting for the 2 little angels and the holy terror tonight, but compared with my hairy hound, he’s a picnic.
Hope you are all doing better than me in the aftermath.
Love Kathy
Hi all, hope your skin is all on the up and up.I have been feeling great the past few days but have been wiped out today,maybe have been over doing it.
Am with you all on the break front,am meeting up with my uni friends tomorrow,we all get together at least once a year and last year was our silver jubilee,booked into the same hall and actual rooms that we stayed in while at uni and had a ball revisiting old haunts…mainly pubs…lol. This year we will be in Brum so watch out for 4 mad Scottish women singing and dancing and generally celebrating after a mental 6 months… whoop whoop !
Hope you all have a great weekend.
Sandra x
Hi there
Joined the cooked group, finished yesterday, and promptly buurst into tears! What’s that about?! Like a few of you have said before, everyone thinks you should be celebrating, …but it feels like a bit of an anti - climax? Strangely flat and weepy, but better today. so nice not to be heading off for the hospital!
So far, skin seems OK, bit red in the crease below the breast and nipple very tender. It’s more an intense pain within the breast, feels so heavy and achy and swollen. The most painful area is where a suspect second area of activity had shown up on MRI, but a second MRI indicated that it was “normal” tissue and had just shown up due to cyclical activity. Of course, Captain Paranoia is now creeping in and I’m worried that the pain there is because there COULD be something…Nightmare!!! - bet we will be like this for evermore! Will mention it at my follow up though…
Sandra, sure you will be having a blast with your mates, Kate, hope things improve for you.
Andie, glad your onc listened to you and reassured you - bet you are looking forwards to that holiday!
Have a good weekend, Rad Babes - we rock!
Lizzie XX
Hi
Lizzie welcome to the ‘cooked thread’. I think for the last 3 weeks at least, Paranoia could be my middle name. I feel so forunate that I have the oncologist that I do because she has the patience of a saint with me. I am now 2 weeks past the end of being zapped and according to the people who should know this is when skin is about at its worst. Mine has held up quite well but is so itchy I have to consiously stop myself from rubbing it all the time.
The area is still swollen and yesterday I had my prothesis fitting appointment(I had my surgery back in February so it has taken quite a long while, no ones fault just circumstance,) I thought the nurse would refuse to issue my falsies but she realistically said that nothing about us is symetrical so it would not be a problem. I came home so pleased to have a shape again but very quickly had to return to being flat becaue the bra was rubbing and making the radiated skin sore, especially under my arm.
Do any of you newly cooked ladies know how long it will take before the skin is back to ‘normal’
Have a good weekend rads babes
Andie
Hi ladies and welcome Lizzie. I felt the same as you, very flat and not at all in the mood for celebrating. Have continued to feel low, and wondering if Tamoxifen is contributing to this.
Andie, glad you got your prosthesis sorted. Yeh my boob is still swollen and I’m shedding skin like anything. They say that if you’re gonna get any sort of skin reaction it’s 10-14 days after finishing rads. So I guess it’s safe to assume that the skin should start to recover anytime after that.
Lizzie, watch the skin in the crease, that’s where my skin broke and got very sore. Once it’s dried it’s fine but if you get any weeping, contact Rads team to get dressings etc. Mine were really good and, although it took a good week, they worked fine.
On the subject of worrying, my name is definitely Mrs Paranoia!
Hope all are well and enjoy the weekend,
Pat x