Med side effects

My treatment was the same as yours and completed 6 years ago. I lost most of the hair on my head, not all, but didn't lose eyelashes or eyebrows. Hair grew back within a few months. Let me know if you have further questions. Wishing you the best on your treatment.

Hi! I completed my treatment (same as yours) 10 years ago this month. My hair may have thinned a little, but hardly observable. I found this site just before I began treatment and trawled through what I thought would be helpful for me to prepare. Luckily my oncologist went along with my suggestions for pain relief. I was off pain relief 3 days after I competed treatment. My oncologist was sure that by being prepared with the hints and tips I found here helped me get through as well as I did. I bought a portable bidet, disposable wash cloths, used salt in the bidet, air dried. Went commando (I wore my long summer dresses), bought a very thick sheepskin to sit on. I used Candy Crush to distract me waiting for radiotherapy & made sure that I took some crackers. I stuck to a low residue low fat diet. I was prescribed antibiotics for the course of therapy, so with them, pain relief, anti nausea meds I made myself a chart and put alarms on my phone. If you are having a PIC line, buy one of the sleeves that you can use on a plastered arm so that you can continue having showers.

There’s probably more, but it was 10 years ago. I hope some of that helps. 6 weeks seems like a long time but you’ll be surprised that once you start it goes quite quickly.

Best wishes

Liz

Just ordinary kitchen salt! Others have used oats in muslin. I guess just using water in the bidet will be fine! It’s just what I did.

The only issue you may encounter will be sitting down in the tub versus being suspended above the bidet. I was unable to sit upright at the end of treatment until the skin healed. I used Domeboro soaked cloths to lay over the affected area which was soothing. I was also pretty weak and neutropenic so laying down was best. A lot will depend on the number of radiation treatments.

I just completed the same treatment plan as yours about 4 weeks ago. My oncologist said I would lose all my hair…I was devastated so I cut it to a short bob to prepare myself, then I ended up with only some light thinning. However, I did lose all the hair under my arms after the second week of chemo which was fine by me. If you do lose any hair remember that it starts to grow back pretty quickly once you complete treatment. I was lucky enough not to get any nausea but fatigue hit me hard, especially at the end. Radiation is cumulative so the worst of the burns and fatigue will hit towards the end. I took advantage of the palliative team for pain and burn management, and my burns were healed within a couple weeks. I loved the petroleum jelly soaked gauze pads when my burns were at their worst, so soothing. Make sure to ask any question you have and take advantage of all the resources available. The 6 weeks really will fly by. Feel free to reach out if you have questions and good luck to you! You got this!

Nice that so many of us long term survivors are out there and so willing to help those about to embark on a tough journey. I am a 10 year survivor and am living a pretty good post cancer treatment life. I found a lot of great help on this site over the past 10 years. I am now fighting bad hip and low back pain. Seems the drs don't really understand that it is related to the radiation tx. Remember that there is a end to the treatment and life will get better.