I wanted radiation. Even after my mastectomy, I wanted it.
After 2 weeks, I said to my radiation oncologist, can we cut down the number of days? She agreed and cut it down by 2 days.
It’s a strange thing radiation. You don’t really notice it at first.
Side effects
Then come the headaches, nausea, full body sweats, anxiety, thrush, and if you over do it, you are bed bound for at least a day after that.
After 4 weeks of radiation 5 days a week, your skin becomes very itchy and starts to split. The 2 most sensitive spots are the inframammary fold and your under arm.
Mine split under my arm. To soothe and heal the area you need to start saline soaks. Soaked gauze in saline compresses on the area for about 30 mins, twice daily. After which you place a barrier cream.
Procedure
Prior to starting radiation therapy, they marked my skin with 4 tiny dot tattoos so they could line me up with the machine each session. Yes these tattoos are permanent. They started each session with a CT or X-Ray scan to insure the correct positioning.
In addition, for left sided breast cancer we do something called the breath hold. You have a snorkel placed in your mouth and nose plugged. You breath in and hold your breath for the duration of each burn so your lungs push the chest away from the heart to reduce the amount of exposure to the heart.
A boost is performed at the end of the full treatment. I reached day 24 today and it was the first day of my boost. With the boost, I didn’t need to continue with the breath hold. Only my left arm remained extended above my head. A very difficult thing to do after having gone through a mastectomy.
Emotions
They introduced music during my boost but somehow the music made the treatment all that more real.
I would say no matter how simple a procedure is, when you have cancer, your are always on high alert. As “Hello” performed by Adele played in the room while the machine rotated around me, the tears streaming from my eyes.
You never know how it feels to be in someone’s shoes until you are in them yourself. I never imaged I would be laying under a machine powerful enough to destroy to eliminate what was taking over my body.
Post Radiation
You have no idea the impact of radiation until after it’s complete. The appointments are quick and seamless, like going in for an X-Ray.
However, still after 6 months post radiation, my blood counts were very low. I started radiation with 1.8 lymphocytes and at 6 months post radiation they were at 0.6. Something that I had not been aware would happen.
It took me a year of supplementation to bring my lymphocytes to 1. Most notable IP6 helped improve my lymphocytes. With the drop in my immunity, I have struggle to control my gut flora, with constant bloating, fatigue, fevers and thrush.
I know I wanted radiation. I had never thought once that it would impact my body so greatly. Knowing what I know now, I am not sure I would accept it so eagerly. Although it was a key part of my treatment from the type and stage of my cancer if I could avoid it I would.