I received radiation treatments Monday through Friday for four weeks. The first one was on Wednesday, March 20. After the second treatment on Thursday, my skin felt like I had a bad sunburn. It happened faster than I had thought it would, and I was concerned.
My skin had gotten drier with age, and even more so because of the chemotherapy. The days before radiation I had been rushed and not put lotion on. I asked the radiation oncologist if that could be the reason for my skin to burn so quickly, and he said that was very likely. So, if you need radiation, make sure your skin is not too dry, but do not have lotion on the affected area when going in for treatment.
After applying lotion on the area, it felt better. I got into a routine -
When I got up in the morning, I slathered lotion on the area that would be treated. Before leaving for the hospital, I showered to make sure all the lotion was gone from my breast and armpit.
When I got to the hospital at 1:15pm, I removed all clothing from my upper body and put a hospital robe on. Around 1:30 I was taken in for my treatment. The technicians helped me lie down on the couch (hard table) and pushed and pulled my body so that green laser lines lined up with the three tattooed dots.
The radiation treatments themselves took between ten and fifteen minutes. They did not hurt; in fact, I could not feel anything. The worst part was that I still had the cough from Covid. I had hoped it would go away after the first week, but I was still coughing after treatment #20. To make it a little easier, I put a cough drop in my mouth before each treatment. It helped, but I still coughed. It feels bad coughing without covering your mouth, but I had to stay still so could not take my hands off the handles behind my head.
I brought lotion to the hospital so that I could put it on immediately after the treatments. A few hours later I put on more lotion, and then before going to bed. My skin became progressively darker and burned like a bad sunburn, but the lotion seemed to help.
In order to not ruin my shirts and bras I bought inexpensive tank tops to put on closest to my skin. It worked, but the creams make your shirt greasy, so a large loose t-shirt would have worked better as it would have covered the armpit as well.
My treatment plan called for 20 sessions. The first 16 covered the whole breast and armpit. The last four, they call them boosts, were more concentrated on the areas where they removed the tumors and lymph nodes. The change was almost immediate. The evening after the second boost treatment my armpit was very dark and burned much more than it had done previously.
That was a Friday. On Saturday the skin in my armpit had begun to peel. Good thing I had a two-day break before the last two on Monday and Tuesday. The skin continued peeling and stung when I put my arm down so that the skin on my arm rubbed against the raw skin on the armpit.
The only thing that helped the raw skin was Aquaphor. I slathered that on the armpit as well as on and around the surgical scar on my breast. The skin never peeled there, but it felt good as it was burning a lot.
When it got to the point I slept wearing the mastectomy pillow. This helped keep the pressure off the raw armpit. A friend had suggested I get Breast Therapy, that is really meant for issues when breast feeding, to cool down the breast, and that probably would have felt nice. She said it really helped her. I bought them, but unfortunately put them away an forgot them.
About one week after the last radiation session, the skin had almost healed. Now, four weeks afterwards, the skin is still darker, but has lightened so it almost looks like the rest of my skin.
The radiation was not as difficult as the chemo but was more intense; both timewise and the quick changes that got progressively worse. The good thing was that although the treatments made me tired, I healed fairly quickly.
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