End of Chemo - awakening!

PamelaP

Hi everyone, I finished 6 months chemo on 17th Jan & while everyone around me was celebrating I still felt numb.
Luckily I was offered a friends holiday house for 2 weeks between chemo & radiation.  Getting away was exactly what I needed - we were able to walk on the beach every day & in different surroundings!  Coming home I feel a big change in me, I now know (accept) I'm a person who's had breast cancer & finished a complete 6 months of chemotherapy.
I am now able to look back on the journey from discovery to mastectomy to chemotherapy & see I was just focused on step by step just getting through it & not feeling anything.  During the break the steps stopped & I found me again, refreshing, radiant, alive me !!! 
with gentleness & caring to all  PamelaP

Oh dear I posted this in Newly Diagnosed category, can someone please tell me how to move it to General Discussions !

Giovanna_BCNA

Hello @PamelaP,
All good I have moved this to General discussion.
Great to hear that your time away was very restorative.

SoldierCrab

that sounds like you really benefited from having the 2 week break away.... it is nice to be able to refocus on life when we are finished our treatments 

SO hello PamelaP  nice to meet you so glad you are radiant and alive ... 
soldiercrab

Romla

@PamelaP and anybody else in need of a break after treatment are you aware across Australia there are holiday homes available to us for free though usually not available peak periods like school holidays and long weekends.I can’t remember the details maybe another member can help with that.

Romla

Just remembered it’s called the Otis foundation and can be looked up online

Mollygirl

@PamelaP big congrats on finishing your chemo!!!!! Massive tick off the list. I think it's a protective mechanism- we try not think about what's happening too much because it's just so awful. I felt a bit numb emotionally and was just in disbelief that this was happening to me. Didn't look like me in the mirror so wasn't me right??? 
You sound so wonderfully refreshed after your break away - you've reset your mojo!! Well done you!!! Biggest hugs. Bec xx

PamelaP

Now Radiation Burns & dressings - who said it was easy ?

Thanks all for your lovely comments & advice on holiday houses that are free (I have heard of the Otis houses as my daughter & her family went to one a few years ago). 
However it was difficult to go back into treatment after such a lovely break.  Daily radiation trips were a trial & by week 5 the burns were becoming a problem. I hadn't realised how much worse they would get in the week following my last treatment so I wasn't prepared to be going back to the hospital for another 3 weeks after my last radiation.  I have felt flat & sore & sorry for myself because I can't wear a bra & once again my right boob is hanging in the wind !  And oh the tiredness !

I found Metipel dressings with Solugel worked well except for the curvy part under my armpit where nothing would stay put.  Now the burnt skin's almost completely peeled back to new pink skin underneath I'm using QV Intensive all day every day to keep it soft & stop that scratch stretching feeling.  I'm feeling so much worse in myself that after chemo & I'm wondering if that's a common problem with other ladies ? 

Kiwi Angel

@PamelaP - sending u big congrats and hugs xoxoxoo

SoldierCrab

hi @PamelaP
yes you will be more tired and flat .... it is normal feeling after you finish Rads.... typically it takes the same amount of time that you did rads for to get over the tiredness....

gentle hugs 

kmakm

I hope you feel better soon. Perhaps plan to have some more of those restorative walks on the beach? From what I read here you're not alone in these feelings. Take care. K xox