#18 RADIATION PROCESS & SIDE EFFECTS
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Welcome Back! On January 25, 2020 I went for my first of thirty radiation treatments. I was very apprehensive of what I would experience. They had given me a specific card that I was to swipe across a machine at the radiation check in desk.
A lady at the desk put a hospital band on my wrist. A side note here. I am not sure why I felt the need to keep every radiation band but I did.
Here is a picture of every band I had to wear during radiation. During this last year I had kept some of the hospital bands from this or that procedure. I kind of wish I had kept all I was ever given but I didn’t. So I guess keeping all of them from radiation just kind of was proof of the accomplishment I had made. After I was given the hospital band, I went to a specific area for women where they had two dressing rooms with lockers. I chose one of the rooms. I undressed from the waist up and put on a hospital gown. After leaving my clothes and belongings in the locker, I locked it and kept the key with me. Then I went to a specific waiting room. As the weeks progressed, I got acquainted with two other women receiving radiation. It really helped me to talk with them about their situation. Neither of them had been through all that I had. They never experienced chemo.
Once the radiation therapist was ready, he or she would get me from the waiting room. We walked past a long desk area where two nurses usually sat. Once I got to the entrance of the radiation area, the therapist asked my date of birth and verified it with my wrist band. Another tech verified the information in the computer. Usually, they asked if I wanted a warm blanket. Most of the time I declined. We went into the radiation room entrance. Had to turn left and walk until we entered a big room. I could tell for safety purposes the room where I received radiation was a distance from where other people were.
When I entered the big room, I laid my glasses, mask and locker key on a chair seat. Two therapists helped me get positioned and comfortable on the radiation table.
Here is a picture of the radiation machine. The basic table is flat. Depending upon which area of the body they administer the radiation depends on what they add to the table.
This picture shows what they add to the table for breast cancer patients. The top two posts sticking out is what I grabbed my hands onto. There was a specific area that kind of cupped my head. Then lower was a specific place for my hips to rest in. Because I had neck and back issues, over time we added things that made my positioning more comfortable. They put two pillows under my knees to ease the pressure on my lower back. Because the table was so hard, they added a thin layer of foam under my back. My head could not look straight ahead because the radiation might touch it. Therefore, I had to always turn my head towards the left. Keeping it in that position really bothered me because I have neck issues. Eventually we came up with a solution that greatly helped it. We rolled two hand towels up. I propped one under my left jaw. The other one helped hold the first towel roll in place. It took a couple weeks for me to finally feel comfortable in the position. If I was not exactly comfortable this muscle or that muscle revolted. Because I was unable to move during the radiation process that amplified the muscle pain. They also put a rubber band around my shoes to keep my feet in place. I learned quickly to not put my feet flat on the table because the longer I was in that position made it really uncomfortable. Because the machine passed over my head a few inches from my face, I asked for a wash rag to be positioned over my eyes so I would not get claustrophobic. It really helped.
Once I got in place, the therapist used the green laser lights to line my tattoos up with them. I was laying on top of a sheet. If I was not aligned properly, the therapist pulled on the sheet to move my body in position. Again, I laid there with my right breast exposed. That really bothered me at first. Depending on which therapist was working, sometimes they exposed both breasts which made it more uncomfortable. One of the therapists was a guy. That REALLY bothered me. I did not want him seeing me. However, his bubbly personality greatly helped to calm me down. So he actually became one of my favorites as the weeks progressed.
Once I was in position the two therapists left the room and I had to lay completely still. The bed moved in and up towards the machine. I could hear the machine make all kinds of noises. For the first 23 radiations I had to lay completely still for 8-10 minutes. However, from outside my room the therapist changed the position of the machine several times during the procedure. The actual radiation length of time in a specific area was maybe only a minute long. Towards the end of my treatment when they concentrated on specific areas, the length of time was a lot less.
The last week when they concentrated only on the original cancer area, they added this square black looking part to the radiation machine. The first time they used it, they took specific measurements from my lumpectomy incision. They drew on my breast with marker to be exactly sure where they were to position that black part of the machine. They had the radiologist verify their calculation. The black portion was actually within an inch or so from my body. However, once they got that in position and they went out of the room. The actual radiation treatment did not take very much time at all.
As I laid there during the procedure, I used the time to pray. I focused on praying for others usually which helped the time go faster. When the radiation was done, I would hear one of the therapist walk in the room and say it was done. They took the rubber band off my feet and removed the pillows from under my knees. Then one of them helped me get off the table and tie the back of my hospital gown. I then picked up my glasses, mask and locker key. The whole process from start to finish of the radiation process only took about fifteen minutes. I typically took my lunch hour to do radiation. Most of the time, I was able to leave work, do radiation and return in less than an hour.
Every Wednesday after radiation, I was taken to a room where a nurse would ask how I was doing. She would sometimes look to see how my skin reacted to the radiation. Then one of two radiologists met with me for a short period of time.
As I walked back towards the dressing room past the long nurse’s desk, every time one of the nurses greeted me and said something. That really meant a lot to me. I had to go every week day for thirty days. This was a grueling process. So having therapist that were pleasant to be around and the nurses going out of their way to acknowledge I was there, really made a positive difference.
Because the radiation caused a lot of skin irritation, I was required to use a specific lotion three times a day to help soothe the skin. I was also told to not wear a bra as much as possible. Most of the when I did wear a bra, I had the strap lay off my shoulder to help prevent irritation. The pressure from the bra irritated the skin. As the weeks progressed, my skin did get very irritated. So, I ended up wearing XXL men’s button down shirts so that there would be a lot of air and no material irritation to help the healing process. The radiation also kind of tightens things up. I was encouraged to stretch my right arm up against a wall to stretch the muscles out. It was sore and tight. One day after radiation was over, I had a deep tissue massage. I asked the massage therapist to work those muscles that were bothering me from radiation. She did and it greatly helped ease the tightness.
The main side effect I experienced of radiation was skin irritation. The skin irritation was mainly redness and some itching. The worse area of skin irritation was the collarbone. Picture of collarbone irritation The collar bone area got severely red. It hurt to have anything lay over it. The radiation in the collarbone area actually was on the back side of my body too. So, my back upper right had some skin redness too. Some people get real sore under the breast. That area somewhat bothered me. I had a couple weeks where it felt like the skin was ripping apart when the skin got moved. Towards the end my middle chest area got irritated even worse after the radiation stopped in that area. The collar bone redness went away a couple weeks after radiation stopped.
A month after radiation ended, I returned for my monthly check up. The nurse was very pleased how my skin had healed. I basically had no indication of skin irritation left. I was told that I will always have to be careful to use sun blocker on any area I had radiation. Because I had radiation, in those areas my skin will be more sensitive to the sun.
About the middle of the last week of radiation, I started to experience radiation fatigue. I was so tired. The radiation fatigue actually continued off and on for a couple weeks after radiation stopped. I was so grateful when I finally began to get energy back.
Overall, the radiation experience was tougher than I expected but doable. The schedule was tough having to go every week day for 30 days. Skin irritation added to the stress. Then the fatigue came. It was a harder process than I had expected which ended up being very emotional for me.
I knew I could get through all the radiation because Christ is in me and He could give me the strength to get through it.
Next time I will share about an unexpected rollercoaster ride that I experienced.
