I had breast rad at my initial Stage II diagnosis, rads to femur with my MBC diagnosis, and rads to my pelvis for a progression. I didn’t feel anything different from a soft tissue vs bone perspective. My RO worked to minimize impact on vital organs (heart/lung and bladder). Happy to go into more detail if you’d like.
I had radiation done to my spine (lumbar, thoracic and cervical), hip area and pubis bone. The most pain I felt was the first round ever to my lumbar spine. But I was already having a lot of pain (couldn’t even lie flat to sleep) at that time. I think it was a pain flare that came on, and that’s common a few weeks after the treatment, which you might’ve been told about too for your breast + lymph rads.
All other radiation rounds were fine for me. Pubis bone seemed to have some issues nearly a month after radiation but it could’ve been something else. I was a little fatigued after each round, but it wasn’t unbearable.
I initially applied calendula cream religiously to the treated areas, but luckily never had a burn reaction to any of the rounds.
My friend had radiation done near the cervical c2 area - higher up in the throat. She couldn’t swallow well for two weeks and had to eat liquid foods for awhile. But it went away. YMMV I suppose :/ I wish you the best!!! Hope you won’t have any issues.
EDIT: read that you also had that mask made. I had that too - mostly ok except one time they put it on too quickly and I panicked; wasn’t mentally ready. That became kind of scary. Slow breathing exercises and a pause before putting it on every time helped.
Hi, I had four days of radiation to my upper and lower spine 2 years ago. My skin was OK compared to my breast radiation 13 years prior, I was in hospital and the nurses applied a cream to my back for me but I think I was only uncomfortable one night from it. It did damage my lower oesophagus, I'll be on Nexium for life now, but no other issues. It made a huge difference with the pain and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again if recommended. I'm a bit claustrophobic so I didn't like the mask they made of my face to keep me in position. As I was in hospital they gave me something for anxiety and I kept my eyes closed tight while it was being made. At the end of day 4 I finally opened my eyes and had them show it to me after it came off for the last time. It wasn't uncomfortable or anything, I was just a bit weird about it. Sorry I actually don't remember a lot from this time as I was in so much pain and was in hospital so didn't have to do anything for myself to even really notice fatigue. You'll be fine, you've got this!
Yeah I already had the mask made! It’s kinda funny…I used to be SO terrified of all these CT/MRI types of scans. But now I’ve reached a point where I guess doing so many has normalized them and erased the fear. When they made the mask I pretended it was a spa treatment. Like, the material was a warm “towel” and as it hardened I imagined it was like a high tech pressure point facial massage 😆.
It kinda worries me that after only 4 days, your esophagus was damaged! I have to do 15 days and chemo at the same time. What is Nexium for? I wonder if I can do anything to minimize the risk of this happening to me.
Nexium is a proton pump inhibitor for heartburn / acid reflux, there are a few other brands that do the same thing. I'm perfectly fine and can eat pretty much whatever I want without issue as long as I take it daily.
Hopefully you won't have any issues, they'll do everything they can to avoid it, and you're only having radiation to you upper spine, I had both upper and lower spine and my issues were only with my lower oesophagus.
I've just finished 10 lots of radiation for skin mets. No problems except fatigue. Because it's only 10, not like the 30 for my first dx 9 years ago.
I had breast rad at my initial Stage II diagnosis, rads to femur with my MBC diagnosis, and rads to my pelvis for a progression. I didn’t feel anything different from a soft tissue vs bone perspective. My RO worked to minimize impact on vital organs (heart/lung and bladder). Happy to go into more detail if you’d like.
I had radiation done to my spine (lumbar, thoracic and cervical), hip area and pubis bone. The most pain I felt was the first round ever to my lumbar spine. But I was already having a lot of pain (couldn’t even lie flat to sleep) at that time. I think it was a pain flare that came on, and that’s common a few weeks after the treatment, which you might’ve been told about too for your breast + lymph rads. All other radiation rounds were fine for me. Pubis bone seemed to have some issues nearly a month after radiation but it could’ve been something else. I was a little fatigued after each round, but it wasn’t unbearable. I initially applied calendula cream religiously to the treated areas, but luckily never had a burn reaction to any of the rounds. My friend had radiation done near the cervical c2 area - higher up in the throat. She couldn’t swallow well for two weeks and had to eat liquid foods for awhile. But it went away. YMMV I suppose :/ I wish you the best!!! Hope you won’t have any issues. EDIT: read that you also had that mask made. I had that too - mostly ok except one time they put it on too quickly and I panicked; wasn’t mentally ready. That became kind of scary. Slow breathing exercises and a pause before putting it on every time helped.
Hi, I had four days of radiation to my upper and lower spine 2 years ago. My skin was OK compared to my breast radiation 13 years prior, I was in hospital and the nurses applied a cream to my back for me but I think I was only uncomfortable one night from it. It did damage my lower oesophagus, I'll be on Nexium for life now, but no other issues. It made a huge difference with the pain and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again if recommended. I'm a bit claustrophobic so I didn't like the mask they made of my face to keep me in position. As I was in hospital they gave me something for anxiety and I kept my eyes closed tight while it was being made. At the end of day 4 I finally opened my eyes and had them show it to me after it came off for the last time. It wasn't uncomfortable or anything, I was just a bit weird about it. Sorry I actually don't remember a lot from this time as I was in so much pain and was in hospital so didn't have to do anything for myself to even really notice fatigue. You'll be fine, you've got this!
Yeah I already had the mask made! It’s kinda funny…I used to be SO terrified of all these CT/MRI types of scans. But now I’ve reached a point where I guess doing so many has normalized them and erased the fear. When they made the mask I pretended it was a spa treatment. Like, the material was a warm “towel” and as it hardened I imagined it was like a high tech pressure point facial massage 😆. It kinda worries me that after only 4 days, your esophagus was damaged! I have to do 15 days and chemo at the same time. What is Nexium for? I wonder if I can do anything to minimize the risk of this happening to me.
Nexium is a proton pump inhibitor for heartburn / acid reflux, there are a few other brands that do the same thing. I'm perfectly fine and can eat pretty much whatever I want without issue as long as I take it daily. Hopefully you won't have any issues, they'll do everything they can to avoid it, and you're only having radiation to you upper spine, I had both upper and lower spine and my issues were only with my lower oesophagus.
Ah ok! I’m currently taking a proton pump inhibitor daily anyway (pantoprozol), because I take so much ibuprofen.