Hi, just thought would start a newbie rads thread to hopefully compare notes/pinkness/waiting times/creams to use and any other general usefull or useless information to help us on our way.
I’m starting 15 sessions of rads on Wed the 29th April, my biggest hurdle is the hospital I go to is nearly a 4 yes that is FOUR hour round trip away ! No I don’t live on the moon, just rural North Wales.
Look forward to chatting soon…
Sandra x
Hi Sandra, poor you! 4 hours every day, you’ll be exhausted! Did you go to the same hosp for chemo? What a nightmare. Must say I’m lucky, it’s a 15 min car journey or same time on tube (I’m in London). I have just finished chemo - 4 FEC and 4 TAX and start rads same as you on Wednesday next week. I’ve been advised to use aqueous cream and also to use sunblock as skin will be v sensitive, I think it’s to do with chemo too. And I’ve also been recommended Aloe Vera gel, but it has to be a high % like 95% or something. Apparently it’s available in Holland & Barratt so will find out more. Looking fwd to it starting as it’s another part of the treatment over but bit apprehensive too. Hopefully we won’t get too pink - or RED!! Will you be starting hormone therapy as well, like Tamoxifen? Pat x
Hi Pat, luckily I avoided chemo,the hosp had surgery(am 8 weeks post op) at was only 3hour round trip away,this one just that wee bit further.
I’ve been on tamoxifen three weeks now and no side effects as yet…just waiting for the hot flushes to kick in…
Had my planning on Monday and got 3 tattoos and not told to use any cream as yet but I have been slapping on the aqueous every day. I don’t mind getting pink or red am more concerned that my boob might split !!! EEEEEEKKKKKKK. More likely if you are “heavily breasted” like me…so I’m told …oh the joys…
Sandra x
Crikey, I thought my 80 minutes round trip was bad enough!
Good luck with that.
I’ve just completed a week of rads. Just 2 more to go then a few sessions of “booster treatment” to the tumour site. Unfortunately my booster planning was abandoned today as the onc was unhappy with my contorted breast & I have to go back to see my surgeon next week.
Please don’t be worried about the rads - it’s just my body healing awkwardly post-seroma I think and nothing to do with the rads.
Hi
Just thought I would join in to a thread where I can compare rads tales. I too start on wednesday 29th for 15 sessions.
I have a journey into London by train every day for mine. The hospital where I have had all my other treatment does not do the radiotherapy. The travelling will take about 1-1/2 hours either way, depending on the reliability of the trains, for what I am reliably informed will be a very short session at the hospital. I have also been slapping on the cream in advance as instructed at the appointment when they did the tattoos.
I had chemo first, then surgery, after rads I will be moving on to tamoxifen. I am concerned about the hot flushes that get reported on that because I already suffer quite badly anyway.
Look forward to comparing notes
Andie
Hi Ladies,
I finished rads 5 weeks ago. I used [and still am] the radiance cream from the bristol cancer centre. It is expensive [£16 for a pot] but is amazing stuff! Has got in it- aloe vera, royal jelly, jasmine,lavender and rose. Kept my skin from burning, itching and splitting and the nurses commented how good my skin looked after 15 sessions.
well worth the money-good luck to you all having rads at the moment
Leadie
Hi Andie and Philidel,
Glad I don’t have to get trains for my appointments as would prob take me two days to get there ! It’s the car for me, I have been able to book into the hostel at the hosp for rads 8 to 12 so am looking at that as a wee bit of a holiday in a health facility ! Lol.
Have got 2 school age children so am trying to keep things as norm as poss at home but just think would be totally wiped out by the journey if had to do it 15 times hence my little break from home near the end of rads.
The prob re the creams Leadie is that you don’t know if you would have had the same results with a huge £1.99 tub of aqueous cream,I don’t know if there have been any studies about what cream is best to use(the standard does seem to be aqueous) or does it just boil down to the luck of the draw and how your skin holds up regardless of what we are slathering on it…
Sandra x
Hi All,
I am waiting to see the Radiographer for my planning session so very interested to read about your experiences so far. I will be having 20 sessions and my hospital is also a 2 hour drive away in Inverness.
We have decided to stay in our campervan nearer to the hospital and try to make it a bit of a holiday !
I am already 6 weeks post op and not sure when treatment will start. i have declined chemo in favour of Rads and Hormone Therapy so it is fingers and everything else crossed.
Good luck to us All and have a great weekend - Love Janet xx
Hi
Just commenting on what Sandra44 was saying about aqueous cream. My 20 rads were April/May last year, I have very pale skin that burns very easily. As advised, I used aqueous cream that the hosp gave me during rads and for 6 wks after, and I never really had any skin problems. In fact rads didnt cause me any probs at the time, not even tiredness, guess I was used to tiredness with a one year old that didnt sleep through the night! My problem with rads is now, one year on, the bruised pain in my ribs and the stabbing pains are terrible lately, but normal according to my bcn.
Hi all, start my “suntanning” session on Monday for 15 days. Two hour round trip and hoping to work through it all. Had the tattoos already but no advice about creams.
Good luck everyone!
Hi,
Don’t know whether this will be of any help to you ladies, fortunately radiotherapy is now a thing of the past for me. I was advised by my BCN to use E45 cream twice a day and to start it before the radiotherapy started, I took her advice but when I started treatment I used it 4 times a day. As I’m on the large size I was expecting to suffer but whether I have good skin or whether it was because of the E45 cream I had very little soreness. I found the area under the bust where my bra fits was the worst but I went without my bra as much as I could and if I went for a lie down on the bed I went topless to get the air to the area. I also read somewhere to drink lots of water to keep well hydrated. The ingrediants in E45 cream and acqueous cream are more or less the same but E45 contains lanolin and some people are allergic to this.
I know E45 is just under £7 for a 500g pot and acqueous can be bought in habs (home and bargain) for 98p for the same size, but I thought that E45 looked nicer than the acqueous which I thought looked like a pot of lard.
Good luck to you ladies, just remember that it won’t be long before radiotherapy for you will be just a memory like it is for me and I only finished mine at the end of February this year.
Thanks for your post Olwen, I’d be happy enough to put on a tub of lard if I thought that would help ! Lol.
Talking bout weird things like that …I’m sure I read somewhere that about the old cabbage leaves in the bra trick. I know it is recommended to new mothers, in fact I have a midwife friend and she was the one who told me and it certainly worked for me but it was a bit whiffy having cabbage leaves cooked in milk in my maternity bra ! Just keep in the fridge and remember to pick off the caterpillars first !
Oooh in fact maybe I could fashion a bra out of cabbage so I wouldn’t have to walk about topless at home, might save embarassing the postman…or maybe not…
I noticed Sandra from your earlier messages that you live in North Wales, where do you have to go to for your treatment, is it Christies?
I’m in Snowdonia(south) had op at Llandudno but have to go to Glan Clwyd near Rhyl for the rads,they have a newish cancer unit there,previous to that think the rads patients did have to go Manchester,would have had to stay there for the full 3 weeks if that had been the case.
I know Llandudno well, we live about 16 miles from Chester. I’d never heard of Glan Clywd until quite recently I think for us it would have been an easier journey to go there rather than to Christie’s, we found the journey there abit of a nightmare.
That sounds a bit mad,Glan Clwyd is very easy to get to,just straight off the A55, it’s the journey to the A55 that is a nightmare for me,but at least I won’t be doing it in the middle of the holiday season so that’s something.
hi sandra,
how did you avoid the chemo, did you turn it down, or were you
told not to have it. just curious, you were diagnosed same time
as me with practicaly same diagnosis. i have one unclear margin
so had to go back in again, but am due to start chemo on 13/05/09,
then horm tabs & rads. thanks. still unsure about treatment
thats all as I had high 10 year non reoccurance rates. thanks
I sent you a pm marble did you not get it? Let me know,or will go through it here if they not getting through,I know others having probs sending pm’s but I thought mine were ok.
thanks Sandra. Posted you one back
Hi Lulu650
Hope you had an ok time at your first rads today and not too long a wait…
Sandra x