Day 29 of Pammy's Rads

mlmjt1 said:

Hi Pammy
I havent had radiation treatments and I dont think thats in my future but I have to admit that water and electricity would make my heart race too.

You always seem to find humor in everything...I dont have to worry about the chills cuz I dont have any high beams!!!

Anyway...carry that bra with you at all times. You just never know

HUgs
Linda T

Pammy's Rads
Dear Pammy,
Thank you for sharing your radiation experiences with us. All along it seems you were writing them especially for me.

Even before surgery the doctor told me I needed radiation, I got this sick feeling in my stomach, and had absolutely decided early on that I was not gonna do radiation no matter what.
I was diagnosed in June 09, had lumpectomy end of July, I was scared of course, but the feeling I had when I heard the word radiation was actually worse for me.
Since my treatment plan was developed August 18th, [My stage: Tlb NO (i-) MO = I ),ER+, PR-, Her2/neu-, Ki67 5%], I have been reading posts here, reading all articles I can find about radiation, looked for statistics on recurrence, worked the treatment decision tool at CSN and still cound not decide to make a commitment to radiation. My husband and family of course, all said follow the doctor's treatment plan, but oh, no not me, I am or was still sitting on the fence until yesterday when after reading your latest report of "Pammy's Rads", the idea of radiation for me finally did not make me feel so sick to my stomach and I decided all of a sudden, I can do this after all.
So a MILLION THANK YOU's TO YOU PAMMY especially from my daughter and 3 granddaughters but from the rest of my family and friends as well.
sgamtd

Just wanted to write...
Pammy, Just want you to know how much I admire your intelligence, grit, humor and writing style. But more than all that I admire your your compassionate, giving self. The human spirit can be awesome, and you are living proof. Love, Lynn

Akiss4me said:

You can do it!
I was extremely against radiation when I was told I needed it also! There was no way I could go through this. But once I made up my mind that it HAD to be done, I decided that I would write about it, step by step, in hopes that good or bad, others could see what it was really like. If it helped just ONE person's mind to be at ease through my experience, then it would be worth it. Thank you for confirming that my goal was met! I never thought I could make that kind of a difference in someone elses life, but certainly glad I did.
You CAN do it! The biggest shocker to me, no matter how prepared I thought I was, came with the tiredness! I knew I would get tired, just was not prepared for the intensity of it. I was bumming because my whole year almost felt wasted in terms of not doing anything, until I realized I had been doing a great deal....I have been treating my cancer.
It has been hard for me to let go of doing things, knowing they will be there when I regain my energy, but My body left me no choice and I had to give in. I found great strength in coming here though.
Good luck to you. When do you start? I am here to help with any questions. I will be happy to walk through your treatments with you! You'll never be alone. If you have not a chance to read all my other post, let me know and I will bump them up for you! There are about 20 of them! ♥ Pammy

Pammy's Rads
Dear Pammy,
I did get a chance to read all your Rad posts, and during the period where you were not posting every day I thought, aha, too wiped out to report anymore, good thing for me that I decided not to do rads.
Little did I know until you posted again that other ordinary life matters was taking your time and you did not have time to post. Sorry for the problems you had and am sure hopeful you were able to resolve them.

My feeling about my cancer since lumpectomy and biopsy reports has pretty much been that it's out of there, clean margins, no cancer shown from scans, mri etc, WHY OH HWY do I need to do radiation when just the word scares me more than breast cancer. I am told I am not being rational - and that is probably true, but scared is scared, and when you feel like something is gonna kill you, you tend to shy away from it, right ?

Anyway, I did keep on reading your posts, and like I said, just reading them seems to release some of the bad feelings I had about radiation, therefore I needed to thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I am healing well from the lumpectomy surgery on July 29th, but have a severe reaction to the blue, nuclear tracer dye, it seems to have embedded itself in my breast and even a round of prednisone and antibiotics didn't clear it up although it's about 50% better, but far from being gone, so we are waiting to see if it will go away on it's own.
I have a tenative appt. set up with radiation team on Sept 15th, my surgeon thought by then the dye infection should have cleared itself out.
Thanks for writing about your experiences.
sgamtd