Radiation therapy- a month of sadistic tourture

From the Institute of Image guided radio-therapy:

Radiation Therapy is cancer’s worst nightmare. It uses high-energy X-rays or particles to change the genetic makeup of these cells and take advantage of their rapid growth cycle. So now when they try to multiply, they die. The whole goal of radiation therapy is to damage as many cancer cells as possible, while limiting harm to healthy tissue. Since healthy cells grow and divide much slower than cancer cells, normal tissues have more time to recover and are not as adversely affected by radiation. The majority of normal cells can recover from the effects of radiation and function properly. The method used to deliver radiation depends on the treatment goal and what part of the body is involved. Some methods allow the radiation to penetrate the body more deeply, while other methods are better suited to treat smaller or larger areas. Each treatment plan is tailored to each individual patient. Radiation therapy may be used alone, or combined with surgery and/or chemotherapy.

Radiation therapy, called RADS among those of us who have endured it, is often presented as easy compared to Chemo. Some ladies have an easier time of it but most whom I have chatted with felt it was hell on earth. This is especially true for fair skinned woman.

You have to go every day and climb into a giant machine that has been programed to send beams to and area on your chest that the doctor has deemed at risk for cancer cells spreading. For me, that meant my entire right chest wall, my arm pit and up past my collar bone.  The beams themselves are painless, but after about two weeks, my fair skin looked like I had been scalded.  By the 30th treatment my skin was purple and it hurt to move. I was nauseous from pain and blistered severely.

In the weeks to follow I continued to blistered and peel. I had to sleep on my back and if I turned in my sleep the pain of rubbing a fresh burn would wake me. I was prescribed the same burn cream that 3rd degree burn patients are given. I wondered just how many layers could peel off before I was going to see bone. The flip side was, looking at that mess, I knew cancer could not have lived through that. Nothing could, and I marveled at my own  capacity to recover from so much  trauma.

Since Radiation therapy ended I have been in physical therapy. The skin and muscle were burned enough that they retracted, and everyday I have exercises that are helping regain my strength and range of motion. Like I said before, it is a long road out of purgatory.

Just so ya know. Though I may have been beat down by chemo and radiation, a week after I finished treatment I flew to Tennessee to see my lovely daughter and we hiked up a mountain to a beautiful waterfall. Fuck Cancer! ( insert image of  bird here).

Tomorrow: What else I am  doing to insure my continued wellness