Radiation for Stage IIIC
I had my first appointment with the radiologist on Friday. She was quite young, slightly plump and due to her eastern European upbringing, she had spotless, beautiful skin. She looked about 25.
She asked if I minded if a student witnessed the consultation. Of course not, I said, the more people listening, the better.
The student was even more beautiful that the radiologist and I swear she was not more than 20. I was feeling old and haggard at 63.
Those 2 younguns gave me the best consultation I've had since the start of my cancer. "Any questions?", she would say to me and I'd say no. "Any questions?", to the student, and she always had heaps of good ones, lol. I want a student at every consultation!
I've always felt from the very first visit to the breast surgeon and then oncologists (4 oncologists, in total!) that they weren't being frank with me. It was like we all knew the severity of my situation, inoperable (but not untreatable?). No one wanted to look grave. Everything seemed so routine and cheery. That jellyfish feeling that I got from the start of chemo (I called it gollywog body) was considered an unusual anomaly even though I see (via this forum) that lots of women suffer from this. Basically I got the feeling that any side effect I had was not worth mentioning as it was to be expected or something they'd never heard of before.
Expect anything at all is what they should really say. I went into my mastectomy thinking that this was it. The finish. They'd cut it all out. No one ever suggested that I might be back in surgery within the month, for a bigger surgery, until my mastectomy post op visit.
My radiation girls have not left me in mystery. The lovely radiologist was straight with me. She explained all about where the metastatic nodes are above and below my collarbone, (no clear nodes were found at level III). There's still invasive carcinoma in my pretty little scar line. My lungs and throat will be in the way, she said. She will try to do as little damage as she can to them. "I'm gonna have to fry you. You might need skin grafts". I said isn't that called reconstruction? She laughed.
And then she said very matter of factly, "you've got no choice, so let's get on with it".
I go back tomorrow for planning which she said could take 2 to 3 hours. Then she's gonna slice me into 1mm strips via all the scans and xrays to minimize the damage to my lungs and throat. She said that could take at least a week, maybe more.
After the radiation (6 weeks) there will be more targeted scans to search the rest of my body.
Is there anybody out there who had Stage IIIC (grade 2 cells) and then radiation for their cancer? I'm wondering how badly burnt one can get?
I'm glad those girls were straight with me. Forewarned is forearmed. There are some incredible new materials to help heal burns and she has already suggested Strata X. I'd mentioned using Stratamed on my scar line (lol, all in vain) and that's when she mentioned
Strata X. "We don't use it cause it's so expensive, but if you want to you can buy some and we'll use it on you".
Done and dusted I said. My pharmacist will order it in tomorrow.
She asked if I minded if a student witnessed the consultation. Of course not, I said, the more people listening, the better.
The student was even more beautiful that the radiologist and I swear she was not more than 20. I was feeling old and haggard at 63.
Those 2 younguns gave me the best consultation I've had since the start of my cancer. "Any questions?", she would say to me and I'd say no. "Any questions?", to the student, and she always had heaps of good ones, lol. I want a student at every consultation!
I've always felt from the very first visit to the breast surgeon and then oncologists (4 oncologists, in total!) that they weren't being frank with me. It was like we all knew the severity of my situation, inoperable (but not untreatable?). No one wanted to look grave. Everything seemed so routine and cheery. That jellyfish feeling that I got from the start of chemo (I called it gollywog body) was considered an unusual anomaly even though I see (via this forum) that lots of women suffer from this. Basically I got the feeling that any side effect I had was not worth mentioning as it was to be expected or something they'd never heard of before.
Expect anything at all is what they should really say. I went into my mastectomy thinking that this was it. The finish. They'd cut it all out. No one ever suggested that I might be back in surgery within the month, for a bigger surgery, until my mastectomy post op visit.
My radiation girls have not left me in mystery. The lovely radiologist was straight with me. She explained all about where the metastatic nodes are above and below my collarbone, (no clear nodes were found at level III). There's still invasive carcinoma in my pretty little scar line. My lungs and throat will be in the way, she said. She will try to do as little damage as she can to them. "I'm gonna have to fry you. You might need skin grafts". I said isn't that called reconstruction? She laughed.
And then she said very matter of factly, "you've got no choice, so let's get on with it".
I go back tomorrow for planning which she said could take 2 to 3 hours. Then she's gonna slice me into 1mm strips via all the scans and xrays to minimize the damage to my lungs and throat. She said that could take at least a week, maybe more.
After the radiation (6 weeks) there will be more targeted scans to search the rest of my body.
Is there anybody out there who had Stage IIIC (grade 2 cells) and then radiation for their cancer? I'm wondering how badly burnt one can get?
I'm glad those girls were straight with me. Forewarned is forearmed. There are some incredible new materials to help heal burns and she has already suggested Strata X. I'd mentioned using Stratamed on my scar line (lol, all in vain) and that's when she mentioned
Strata X. "We don't use it cause it's so expensive, but if you want to you can buy some and we'll use it on you".
Done and dusted I said. My pharmacist will order it in tomorrow.
