Radiation and Med treatment only

thankyou for your reply; i was joking about the celebrities but thank you anyway!! i will probably have a look!  I think you and i are in the same...little boat...i like my oncologist -very straight down the line and he said i would increase my odds by 1% maybe with chemotherapy so 

but it does feel like we are not on 'standard treatment'--i like the way you talk about it and thats what i do most of the time too--mixture of taking charge, self soothing and hopeful...

look no treatment option is without anxiety or difficulty; an acquaintance said her relative was told that chemotherapy is 100% effective and that must be nice to hear when you are going through this--

good wishes for your operation!

Hi Mona,

Your pathology results are the same as mine, except for the node involvement.  I too have had Lumpectomy followed by 6 weeks of radiaion.  My research has come up with the same info that my onco has informed me.  This treatment is showing better results than masectomy for our type of cancer and pathology results.  The only problem that I have is if recurrance happens, reconstruction is a bit more complicated because of damage to the skin from the radiation.  I am trying not to focus on this.

I am having hysterectomy/ooperectomy this week, high family history of cancers, so I am further reducing risks.  Will resume Tamoxifen 1 week after surgery, then the plan is to swap over to Arimidex, as it is having better results long term.

All we can do is trust the team of people who are treating us, they do work as a team so it is not just one person deciding your fate.

Angelina Jollies treatment was preventative, she was not dealing with cancer so treatment was different.  Have you googled Kerrianne Kennelly, she had lumpectomy followed by radiation and would have had the top team batting for her.

Take care

Viv

There is something distinctive about having breast cancer and not having chemotherapy; another article in the age today - a woman tells her story and of course there is chemotherapy; people respond with 'no chemotherapy?! and of course this website is overwhelmingly chemotherapy based.  My oncologist said that he feels chemotherapy is over used, and there is a financial incentive to do this treatment and that practice is slowly changing, that research says survival rates are the same..and i felt good at the time; but it does add to my 'journey' that  i seem to be in the minority here. I can see why he said he has women argueing for chemotherapy and he goes along with that. I can see there is a lot of fear here and women talk about 'of course' wanting chemotherapy about survival rates etc but then there are all sorts of impacts  --

please dont respond to this message asking me to get asecond opinion; as it is hard enough without that; and i must admit waiting for radiation is really hard as i dont feel i have 'chemotherapy' that was done before

wondering where those women that dont have chemotherapy; know they are out there!! Maybe i need a celebrity who didnt have chemotherapy or both breasts off....

I had my radiation treatment 3 weeks after I finished my chemo. 

Compared to the chemo, the radiation treatment was a walk in the park.

I was 1200 kms away from home so working was not an option.  I walked to a bus stop.  Took a bus.  Changed buses, then caught a train to get to treatment each day.  Some days I had double doses. 

One bit of advice I was given was to drink lots of water.  Later on I discovered that anymore than 3 litres of water a day is not good for you as it can reduce minerals like sodium and potassium which then have an affect on your mental capabilities and increase the risk of fatigue. 

I used paw paw ointment every night and day on the affected area.  I had a noticeably red area but was not sore at all....not even like a bad sunburn.

I wore breast feeding singlet tops which were really comfortable and not too restrictive.  On top of those I wore loose tops. 

The one side effect that I got (which was potentially a flow on from the chemo as well), was that I suffered terribly from fluid retention.  I had to wear pressure bandages at night for my lower legs.  I also had pressure bandages on my torso from my waist up incuding my shoulders (2 layers).  In addition I had my arm in a sleeve 24/7. 

I got physio for the lymphodema 4 times the second week of radiation and then 3 times the next week and down to 2 times for the remaining weeks. 

I slept well.

I was on my own for treatment so I didn't have to extend myself to take in other people which was a blessing really.  I didn't feel selfish but I was allowed to be selfish.

My chemo brain got significantly worse after I finished all the treatments.  It seems there was a residual effect happening so I am not sure if it was attributed to the radiation but the oncologist explained to me that I would experience a lot of fatigue now that the treatment was completed.

My GP has been wonderful.  Constantly he has assured me that I am in recovery and that I should not have high expectations of what I should be doing.  He has been totally supportive of my not returning to work until I am feeling a lot better. 

I had my radiation treatment 3 weeks after I finished my chemo. 

Compared to the chemo, the radiation treatment was a walk in the park.

I was 1200 kms away from home so working was not an option.  I walked to a bus stop.  Took a bus.  Changed buses, then caught a train to get to treatment each day.  Some days I had double doses. 

One bit of advice I was given was to drink lots of water.  Later on I discovered that anymore than 3 litres of water a day is not good for you as it can reduce minerals like sodium and potassium which then have an affect on your mental capabilities and increase the risk of fatigue. 

I used paw paw ointment every night and day on the affected area.  I had a noticeably red area but was not sore at all....not even like a bad sunburn.

I wore breast feeding singlet tops which were really comfortable and not too restrictive.  On top of those I wore loose tops. 

The one side effect that I got (which was potentially a flow on from the chemo as well), was that I suffered terribly from fluid retention.  I had to wear pressure bandages at night for my lower legs.  I also had pressure bandages on my torso from my waist up incuding my shoulders (2 layers).  In addition I had my arm in a sleeve 24/7. 

I got physio for the lymphodema 4 times the second week of radiation and then 3 times the next week and down to 2 times for the remaining weeks. 

I slept well.

I was on my own for treatment so I didn't have to extend myself to take in other people which was a blessing really.  I didn't feel selfish but I was allowed to be selfish.

My chemo brain got significantly worse after I finished all the treatments.  It seems there was a residual effect happening so I am not sure if it was attributed to the radiation but the oncologist explained to me that I would experience a lot of fatigue now that the treatment was completed.

My GP has been wonderful.  Constantly he has assured me that I am in recovery and that I should not have high expectations of what I should be doing.  He has been totally supportive of my not returning to work until I am feeling a lot better. 

Sorry to hear about your bc diagnosis but welcome to this network.I think it  depends on the sort of work you do.Also,it's hard to predict how you'll go with radiation.Some women breeze through it and some burn badly.You will possibly get  tired about halfway through treatment because the radiation is also destroying some red blood cells so your body has to make up more each time. I had plenty of sick leave and holiday leave so I had the 6 weeks off and I was glad I did.I was red and sore and very tired by the end of it.But my skin never broke down.I would put aloe vera gel on straight after the zap.I would soak in a warm salt bath at night then dry and apply vit e cream. If you have any concerns about your proposed treatment then you could always seek a second opinion or talk to your breast care nurse. Blog back here any time for info and support because it's a scary time for you. Somehow knowing others have been through it and survived seems to help.Sending hugs,Tonya xx