Only 5 radiation treatments and a great deal of pain...

luvseals

I began radiation treatments last Monday and have only had 5 treatments so far and the pain is incredible. Has anyone else had this kind of experience? Now in addition to the large amount of pain I began with before the radiation treatments I have a lot of additional pain all the way around my body in the areas that they are treating. It feels as though someone has beat me with a baseball bat. I spoke with another woman who is being treated for the same type of cancer as me (vaginal wall cancer) told me that the cancer hasn't caused her pain nor have the radiation treatments. She is 11 treatments ahead of me and I know everyone is different, but I just wondered why this is all so very painful for me and if anyone else has experienced what I am. I did tell them after a radiation treatment wednesday that I had a considerable increase in pain and they did give me an Rx for a new pain med, Roxinol or Morphine oral (tastes hidious) but it really has only helped quite minimumly. I am very resistant to drugs so perhaps the dosage isn't high enough for me, but I just am all new to this whole terrible world and it is really really tough and just wondered what others experience with radiation are. Thanks so much, Michele

lindaprocopio

I've had 29 rounds of radiation so far, and no pain at all.
Are you having IMRT external pelvic radiation? I just finished up 28 rounds of it June 9th, and didn't even have any skin irritation, and absolutely zero pain of any kind. I had diahrea throughout the 5 weeks I had the treatments, but no pain. Last week I had the 1st of 3 internal (vaginal) brachy radiation, and again: no pain at all. I'm even able to 'fool around' with my husband without pain, as long as we take it easy. This may be an intensification of the cancer-related pain you had before your radiation. Have they referred you to a pain specialist? (((((Michele))))) Big hugs, honey; that sounds just awful.

luvseals

lindaprocopio said:

I've had 29 rounds of radiation so far, and no pain at all.
Are you having IMRT external pelvic radiation? I just finished up 28 rounds of it June 9th, and didn't even have any skin irritation, and absolutely zero pain of any kind. I had diahrea throughout the 5 weeks I had the treatments, but no pain. Last week I had the 1st of 3 internal (vaginal) brachy radiation, and again: no pain at all. I'm even able to 'fool around' with my husband without pain, as long as we take it easy. This may be an intensification of the cancer-related pain you had before your radiation. Have they referred you to a pain specialist? (((((Michele))))) Big hugs, honey; that sounds just awful.

radiation pain
Linda:
I was hoping you would respond you are so wonderful and full of information. Yes it is IMRT external pelvic radiation. I am not having skin irritation yet at least and I am considerably overweight but they are (for lack of a better term) pulling up my fat with tape so as to limit any skin irritation. It just feels like I said like a beating with a baseball bat. I will see my doctor on Monday after my radiation treatment so I will be discussing all this with him then, he was on vacation last week and so I spoke with the dr. who was filling in for him while he was gone, of course this was on Monday and I had only had one treatment at that time and didn't know what was going to happen. I have noticed more "soreness" type pain with each treatment which leaves me a little worried in that I have 23 more to go. The treatment itself goes by super fast and doesn't bother me till a few hours after each treatment then the pain really sets in. Has your cancer itself caused you pain? Mine has been terrible and it's definetly a bad thing but at the same time, that is what sent me to the dr. in the first place so I guess in that sense it was and I hesitate to say this a "good" thing at the same time. I am more than ready to be done with the pain though. Linda, where are you from? I told my husband about you and he said "where is she from?" and I told him I didn't know. We live in Fort Worth TX but are orig. from Minnesota. Thanks for all you support, you are special Love & Hugs, Michele

BonnieR

Hugs N Prayers
Hi Michele, sorry to hear you are having pain, I know for some areas it can cause pain. Make sure you do speak to your team to get this managed, you are going through enough without having to add pain on top of it. Hugs Bonnie

BonnieR

lindaprocopio said:

I've had 29 rounds of radiation so far, and no pain at all.
Are you having IMRT external pelvic radiation? I just finished up 28 rounds of it June 9th, and didn't even have any skin irritation, and absolutely zero pain of any kind. I had diahrea throughout the 5 weeks I had the treatments, but no pain. Last week I had the 1st of 3 internal (vaginal) brachy radiation, and again: no pain at all. I'm even able to 'fool around' with my husband without pain, as long as we take it easy. This may be an intensification of the cancer-related pain you had before your radiation. Have they referred you to a pain specialist? (((((Michele))))) Big hugs, honey; that sounds just awful.

favorite
Linda, this is my favorite picture of you so far. :-)

lindaprocopio

luvseals said:

radiation pain
Linda:
I was hoping you would respond you are so wonderful and full of information. Yes it is IMRT external pelvic radiation. I am not having skin irritation yet at least and I am considerably overweight but they are (for lack of a better term) pulling up my fat with tape so as to limit any skin irritation. It just feels like I said like a beating with a baseball bat. I will see my doctor on Monday after my radiation treatment so I will be discussing all this with him then, he was on vacation last week and so I spoke with the dr. who was filling in for him while he was gone, of course this was on Monday and I had only had one treatment at that time and didn't know what was going to happen. I have noticed more "soreness" type pain with each treatment which leaves me a little worried in that I have 23 more to go. The treatment itself goes by super fast and doesn't bother me till a few hours after each treatment then the pain really sets in. Has your cancer itself caused you pain? Mine has been terrible and it's definetly a bad thing but at the same time, that is what sent me to the dr. in the first place so I guess in that sense it was and I hesitate to say this a "good" thing at the same time. I am more than ready to be done with the pain though. Linda, where are you from? I told my husband about you and he said "where is she from?" and I told him I didn't know. We live in Fort Worth TX but are orig. from Minnesota. Thanks for all you support, you are special Love & Hugs, Michele

Hi, Michele! No, I never had any pain with my cancer.
Thank you for your kind words. My cancer was totally asymptomatic, suspected following a routine annual Pap test. Up until my cancer treatment started, I'd been going to the gym 6 days a week and doing 10 miles each time on the ellyptical machine and lifting weights. Because I had no symptoms and seemed so ridiculously healthy, everyone was sure it would be nothing or in the earliest stages. I was so sure I didn't have cancer that I went with my husband for a 9-day hiking vacation in Utah 2 days after my diagnostic D&C. I came back to a cancer diagnosis, and after surgery learned I was Stage III-c. So, any discomfort at all for me from having cancer is related to my TREATMENTS. Luckily, the fact that I had never had surgery before and that I had no concurrant medical conditions of any kind has made me able to tolerate the aggressive chemo and radiation I've had. I had to have a couple of blood transfusions; my hemoglobin got so low that I was unable to drive safely; and my immunity dropped too low for me to be around my grandchildren much. But now that my chemo and most of my radiation is over, I have no lingering side effects,...other than the almost-bald head! I have 2 more rounds of internal radiation to go and then I'm DONE!

I live in the anthracite coal region of central Pennsylvania.

luvseals

lindaprocopio said:

Hi, Michele! No, I never had any pain with my cancer.
Thank you for your kind words. My cancer was totally asymptomatic, suspected following a routine annual Pap test. Up until my cancer treatment started, I'd been going to the gym 6 days a week and doing 10 miles each time on the ellyptical machine and lifting weights. Because I had no symptoms and seemed so ridiculously healthy, everyone was sure it would be nothing or in the earliest stages. I was so sure I didn't have cancer that I went with my husband for a 9-day hiking vacation in Utah 2 days after my diagnostic D&C. I came back to a cancer diagnosis, and after surgery learned I was Stage III-c. So, any discomfort at all for me from having cancer is related to my TREATMENTS. Luckily, the fact that I had never had surgery before and that I had no concurrant medical conditions of any kind has made me able to tolerate the aggressive chemo and radiation I've had. I had to have a couple of blood transfusions; my hemoglobin got so low that I was unable to drive safely; and my immunity dropped too low for me to be around my grandchildren much. But now that my chemo and most of my radiation is over, I have no lingering side effects,...other than the almost-bald head! I have 2 more rounds of internal radiation to go and then I'm DONE!

I live in the anthracite coal region of central Pennsylvania.

No pain that is great
Linda:
I am so glad you haven't had any pain that is wonderful. It is also so great that you are almost done with your treatments...yay! I have 23 more of the external and then 3 of the internal to go. Your picture is adorable! I have never been to Pennsylvania but would like to go sometime You are amazing you have gone through a lot and are so positive and doing so well, your really a great example for others. It's so nice of you to relate your experiences for others because it really does help. Thanks again and yay for you for almost being done! Love & Hugs, Michele

luvseals

BonnieR said:

Hugs N Prayers
Hi Michele, sorry to hear you are having pain, I know for some areas it can cause pain. Make sure you do speak to your team to get this managed, you are going through enough without having to add pain on top of it. Hugs Bonnie

Bonnie
Thank you so much for posting a lot and helping others too, because without the help from all of you angel vetrans we "newbies" would not have anyone to turn to for advise. I am going to talk to my dr. tomorrow during our weekly conference and explain to him about all the pain. You are so right when you say the pain just makes it that much worse. The whole emotional aspect of this diagnosis is certainly enough to go through all by itself let alone a ton of pain. You are very sweet and helpful too and I thank you for that Love & Hugs, Michele

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