Monday, August 18, 2014
As I state with every week, I walked in dreading my appointment, but it gets me one step closer to being done, so in I went. My skin on my chest right between my breasts really began itching in earnest over the weekend. The inside of my cleavage on my left breast is also red and an obvious difference from the right side. I try to take photos of this, but the flash and glare from the lights doesn't do the discoloration justice. There is more than what shows up in the photos. I try very hard not to scratch the area that itches as I know it will cause my skin to look (and feel) worse, but I catch myself doing it without thinking. I've been layering Hydrocortisone ointment on the area as much as possible to try to prevent more damage to my skin than there already is. The tired feeling I complained about early on really doesn't seem to bother me too much now. Perhaps I've become used to it? I'm so busy at work right now, I can't tell if the tiredness I feel is radiation or just the fact that I'm extremely busy.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
I woke up with a migraine and not feeling well at all this morning. My radiation is at 9 a.m. every morning, and I knew when I woke up there was no way I could drive to radiation the way my head was pounding. I called and asked to switch the appointment to later in the day so I could take some medication and try to sleep the headache off. They switched me to 1:40 p.m., and I happily went back to sleep. After waiting about 10 minutes for my appointment, I was informed the radiologist had to leave due to becoming very sick, so I wouldn't be able to get radiation that day. As much as I hated to miss a treatment, I honestly didn't mind. I still wasn't feeling well myself. But, I went to work and worked the rest of the day. However, I went home and turned in early. My skin on my chest was still red and itchy even though I skipped a treatment.
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
I had my 20th radiation treatment today (out of 34). I was informed I would not need to have any radiation that is shot from my back as I first told I might need. Based on scans, the radiation is penetrating my lymph nodes in my midline area from the front. She said this is due to me being so thin. So, I will take that as my good news for the day. After radiation today, my skin became pretty angry and red. My left breast is bright red while my right is pale. I truly look like I got a sunburn on the left half of my body only. I also have a few white dots in the redness between my breasts as if my skin is trying to peel a little. Again, I try to catch this in the photos, but I don't think it's showing up too well. Below are photos after today's treatment.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
I am struggling with some pain from the radiation at this point. Mostly on the underside of my left breast. It's becoming very tender. I'm finding the end of the week is pretty tough as the radiation is building up. I always look forward to Friday for various reasons, but mostly get a break from treatments. I've been using hydrocortisone religiously as directed, but my skin is having a tough time recovering at this point. You can now see redness beneath my left breast and on the upper portion of my abdomen.
Friday, August 22, 2014
Today, I informed my radiologist of the pain I'm having associated with treatments. She said she would speak to the doctor and have a prescription cream called in to help. I'm not sure why this wouldn't have been given to me before things got bad?! That's a bit frustrating! I have a very obvious box on the left side of my body now that's angry red. It's very clear the entire area that's being radiated.
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