Sauna and Turkish
Sauna and Turkish We ahve booked our holiday for the end of April when i will have finished my radium by 2 weeks. Will it be ok to have sauna, turkish bath and swimming? And how long after your radium finishes do they start you on tamoxifen? thanks
Hi I think you’ll have to see how your skin reacts to the radiotherapy. I used loads of aqueous cream throughout and my skin was fine, but some people do experience blistering and burning. If you’re not sure at the end of your treatment, I would seek the advice of the radiotherapists.
I was put on Tamoxifen after my mastectomy, so was already on it when I had my radiotherapy 12 weeks later. Your breast care nurse should be able to give you an idea of when you will get it.
— I had booked a holiday 2/3 weeks after my RT. I had quite a bad skin reaction which meant i had to have dressings. It was touch and go as the nurse said i could not swim if any part of the skin hadn’t healed because of infection. She also said the sea was preferable to pool in case the chlorine irritated it. Luckily mine healed in time and had no problems.
With regard to saunas & turkish bath, i would certainly avoid the sauna because of the risk of lymphoedema. From what i remember Turkish baths don’t get that hot so i can’t think why that would be a problem.
Have you got your hair? I didn’t when i went away and apart from travelling i wore buffs all the time. It was very liberating as coping with a wig in heat is awful.
Have a great holiday
Kelley
Would second sauna comment I was also told to avoid sauna and turkish baths as well as normal massage. Since then I have actually tried to book massage at local health spa and they refused unless I could provide a letter from my surgeon/consultant to say it would be OK for them to do this.
Re Tamoxifen, I started on this immediately aftyer completeing rads, no delay.
Hope you have a great holiday Pineapple.
Love/Siggy
Lymph Nodes Hi
This is my first posting so I hope it works OK. I would like to hear from others with large lymph node involvement. I had 15 out of 19 affected and although I’ve met lots of other cancer sufferers I haven’t met anyone with as many lymph nodes involved.
welcome Jeannie Welcome to the site Jeannie,
I am going to move your post to a new thread called large lymph node involvment where more people will see it.
Kind regards
BCC Moderator
— Siggy, why did they say to avoid normal massage? i was soooo looking forward to a nice aromatherapy back massage and a turkish bath, were we are going is a wonderful spa and was going to give it some hammering?
Not sure how accurate this is Pineapple But I was advised by Lympho nurse and surgeon not to have standard swedish type massage as there was 1) danger of increased risk of lymphodema and 2) danger of spreading cancer if it has progressed from breast.
I honestly cannot say how true this is as Onc has advised “rubbish”, he lso says “rubbish” to avoiding blood pressure and blood taking from affected side while GP says No cannot take BP on affected side and vampire nurse says can take blood from affected side after 1 year - so I really am at a loss as to the true facts.
Anyone out there really know what the score is ?.
BTW Pineapple what has your Onc/Surgeon etc. said about you having massage and sauna/turkish baths as I always used to enjoy sauna previously and the occasinal massage.
Can also say that the health centres I have contacted for a weekend away have all said, they will only use limited treatments for BC guests, one of the treatments they will not use is massage unless you have your GP or ONC approval.
Siggy
— Blimey, life is never simple is it !!!
In 2 weeks i see my onc (i am in france so dont know if they have different views) and i will go in with my list of questions including, turkish baths and massage and see what he says - i only had 8 nodes out so hoping it will be ok. by the way, if you get a swollen arm what do you do? (not from a cut just over working) just leave it to go dwon on its own or do you have to go and see a doc?
thanks
Be careful! I was warned against deep massage for the same reasons as Siggy. Light massage must be OK though because it’s used for lymphoedema.
If you’ve just been overdoing it a bit and the arm feels a wee bit stiff and achy, give it a feathertouch massage up towards the shoulder for ten minutes or so now and then and see if that helps.
Love Judy xxx