I finished my radiotherapy today. I have one big radiation burn that looks like I don’t know how to use sunscreen on half my chest, itchy bumps which won’t stop itching, a very sore tender area that I am treating with wound cream and gauze (no sticking plaster, skin is too damaged), and I woke up last night from pain, but I’m done.
Except for the 5-10 years of daily hormone pills. At least they’re reasonably small.
Did I mention I’m really really really itchy?
kittehserf MOD
10 years ago
Non-contact anti-itch hugs, pallygirl. Pain AND itching, that’s the suckiest crapulousness. I’m glad the radiation treatment’s over.
I can come over and pop pills down your throat if you want. I’ve a pill-popper and lots of experience doing it for Fribs.
pallygirl
10 years ago
Thanks for the offer of the pill help. 🙂 I’ve been having practice with ibuprofen and paracetamol for the past two months.
I’m going to hit the codeine before I go to bed.
Everyone said that my skin looks amazingly good at each week of treatment. Hooray for olive skin. And I have been strictly adhering to their moisturising etc advice.
One of those flexible, reusable ice-packs, kept in the fridge rather than the freezer, has been helpful.
Okay, the 1985 King Solomon’s Mines with Richard Chamberlain, Sharon Stone and John Rhys-Davies is streaming off Netflix.
Not five minutes into it, as Chamberlain leads Stone and a procession of Native Bearers (TM) through some godforsaken wilderness, probably supposed to be Darkest Africa, and Chamberlain looks straight down the camera and utters the immortal line, “Trust me, it’s a jungle out there.”
I can’t possibly imagine why it wasn’t considered a serious challenger to Indiana Jones.
Itching is the WORST. I am way better at handling pain than itching. Thank goodness your radiation is done, and may your body recover smoothly!
pallygirl
10 years ago
Thank you. I managed to sleep in until just after 9am today. The codeine helped enormously. And last night, as I was slathering on my cheap moisturising cream over the areas, I noticed radiation rash in my armpit. Now I know it’s there, it’s itchy and on my mind.
At least my body can start properly healing again now.
I have family connections to the UFC and I feel really bad for feeling this way but fuck am I glad that War Machine didn’t win the Ultimate Fighter.
Dana White is kinda douche but he’s not a total asshole.
The fact that the article needs to include the fact that Mack repudiated the allegations that she was cheating on him over social media serves as a pretty severe indictment of the culture that spawned the article (sorry Gawker). Since when is the relative severity of domestic violence dependent on one party’s monogamy?
Speaking of itching, and not to compete with anyone, but it turns out my babies are getting over hand, foot and mouth disease while I woke up this morning and can practically watch the blisters spread across my hands.
For some reason, in the young, it doesn’t itch, but it can be excruciating for teens and adults. Making the jump over to me is unusual, apparently.
Plus my temperature spiked to 101.7 F (37 C) last night and I spent the evening shivering under the covers, but my temperature is normal this morning.
contrapangloss
10 years ago
For the record, ear infections eat dead mice.
Especially since I can’t take any drugs that make me drowsy, or dizzy, or have the warning label on the prescription: “Use Caution when Operating Dangerous Equipment”
Double especially: Because I’m a hobbyist musician who’s used to hearing everything, and by the volume control of my car radio, I’m down 50% at the moment, and it’s DRIVING ME UP A WALL! WHINE!!!!
The reduced hearing is worse than the pain, but the pain’s obnoxious.
I can still do my paid job, but I had to skip my last ride along with the career firefighters: a half deaf EMT in pain is not the first person I’d like doing anything to me in the back of an ambulance…
@Falconer
Hope you feel better, soon!
@Pallygirl
Yay for being done with radiation! Crossing my fingers that the cancer is deader than the deadest thing that exists, and that the rest of you heals up right quick.
pallygirl
10 years ago
@Falconer: the trick I am using is to keep the area as cool as possible, it cuts down on the itching. It may be summer/autumn where you are, so this may not be feasible. But cool packs help. Also, if possible, don’t wear clothing on the area as I’m finding clothes – particularly seams – rub and irritate.
@contrapangloss: is it a bacterial infection?
My armpit was a bit itchy last night, so I looked at it in the bathroom mirror. Down the bottom, which got the radiation, it’s a mass of itchy bumps and dry skin and my incision scar from the surgery in late May is also highly irritated – and it was not a happy area to begin with. The radiation therapists suggested no deodorant for 10 days to help the area heal, I’m going to follow that advice. I have leave for the next week so I won’t pong out any co-workers. I can kill pain sufficiently with analgesics, I wish there was something I could do to take away the itching for any length of time.
If anyone has good experience with anti-itch remedies, I’m keen to hear advice. For example, is calendula cream good and, if so, do I just use the one for babies?
I fantasize about soaking for hours in a warm bath of calomine lotion.
but it can be excruciating for teens and adults. Making the jump over to me is unusual, apparently.
Both of ours got the super duper, turbo-charged, bad version in their early teens. One thing to watch out for that the doctors hadn’t warned us of, the older one had terrible pain in her feet on standing.
(When I say the “bad” version, I mean that one was off school for 3 months, the other for 5. The one good thing we got from that was finding out just how good our remote education system is here. They were fantastic.)
pallygirl
10 years ago
I just found out about this movie, I think I need to buy it:
Oh man, Dark Dungeons is fantastic! You can see the first 8 minutes here:
Everything is so spot-on: The deliberately wooden acting, the stilted evangelical Christian-speak, the bad guys who are a mashup of everything a concerned parent in the 1980s ever worried about. I kept playing 3:15 over and over because it was making me crack up!
pallygirl
10 years ago
LOL, too chicken to play RPG!
Unimaginative
10 years ago
Shingles. On the side of my head. That is all.
pallygirl
10 years ago
Oh shit, ouch. You have my sympathies.
Unimaginative
10 years ago
A folk remedy for itching (that isn’t shingles) is a bath with oatmeal mixed into the water. Pure oats, no syrup or sugar added, in case it’s not obvious. It makes slimy water that soothes you. You need to really clean the tub right after, though, because that shit hardens like concrete.
Also, pallygirl, since it’s a burn, maybe try aloe vera? If you get the plant and use the ooze from the leaves, it won’t have any added chemicals, and it feels really good after sunburn. As I recall, it helps with the itching & peeling, too. (I’ve learned not to be in the sun that long, so I haven’t really needed it in a while.)
pallygirl
10 years ago
Hmm.. oatmeal, I haven’t heard that before. I went to the chemist and got this to use instead of soap (and I use a mild soap anyway because of allergies, but even mild soap isn’t mild enough at the moment): http://www.egopharm.com/pinetarsolbar/
The chemist is also ordering in a special burns product that is used for this itching side effect. It will be here in two days. The chemist was also surprised that now I have finished treatment, none of the radiation people are monitoring me. At least I’ve made sure I’ve kept my GP in the loop.
I asked about aloe vera, as a lot of the sunburn creams here contain it, and I’ve been instructed to avoid anything with aloe vera in it.
Unimaginative
10 years ago
Wow. That “avoid aloe vera” made me go “huh.” and google it. Holy mixed messages! It must be so, SO frustrating to have to navigate all the chemicals for your after-treatment care, on top of the treatment, on top of the fucking cancer.
Fuck cancer. I hope your discomfort subsides quickly.
pallygirl
10 years ago
Thanks @Unimaginative, yep and when the skin issues started cropping up properly in week 3, after I’d already sorted out the damn allergies to what they recommended I use, this is just so frustrating. Apparently even antihistamines won’t work, because the bumps aren’t an allergic reaction.
But on the good news side, I have my Hello Kitty nose piercing end in. It’s really pretty. 🙂
marinerachel
10 years ago
Pinetarsal is one winner. The other is Ego Skin Care’s eczema product line. All soap-free, soap-alternatives. They have a bath oil for flare ups that may be soothing.
We Hunted The Mammoth
I finished my radiotherapy today. I have one big radiation burn that looks like I don’t know how to use sunscreen on half my chest, itchy bumps which won’t stop itching, a very sore tender area that I am treating with wound cream and gauze (no sticking plaster, skin is too damaged), and I woke up last night from pain, but I’m done.
Except for the 5-10 years of daily hormone pills. At least they’re reasonably small.
Did I mention I’m really really really itchy?
Non-contact anti-itch hugs, pallygirl. Pain AND itching, that’s the suckiest crapulousness. I’m glad the radiation treatment’s over.
I can come over and pop pills down your throat if you want. I’ve a pill-popper and lots of experience doing it for Fribs.
Thanks for the offer of the pill help. 🙂 I’ve been having practice with ibuprofen and paracetamol for the past two months.
I’m going to hit the codeine before I go to bed.
Everyone said that my skin looks amazingly good at each week of treatment. Hooray for olive skin. And I have been strictly adhering to their moisturising etc advice.
One of those flexible, reusable ice-packs, kept in the fridge rather than the freezer, has been helpful.
Off to drug myself and go to bed. 🙂
All the best, pallygirl. Sleep well.
Okay, the 1985 King Solomon’s Mines with Richard Chamberlain, Sharon Stone and John Rhys-Davies is streaming off Netflix.
Not five minutes into it, as Chamberlain leads Stone and a procession of Native Bearers (TM) through some godforsaken wilderness, probably supposed to be Darkest Africa, and Chamberlain looks straight down the camera and utters the immortal line, “Trust me, it’s a jungle out there.”
I can’t possibly imagine why it wasn’t considered a serious challenger to Indiana Jones.
RE: pallygirl
Itching is the WORST. I am way better at handling pain than itching. Thank goodness your radiation is done, and may your body recover smoothly!
Thank you. I managed to sleep in until just after 9am today. The codeine helped enormously. And last night, as I was slathering on my cheap moisturising cream over the areas, I noticed radiation rash in my armpit. Now I know it’s there, it’s itchy and on my mind.
At least my body can start properly healing again now.
Feel better, pallygirl. Here’s to quick healing.
Um, hey…Just noticed this news story when looking at another news story and so went to find out more about this news story.
It involves an MRA cage fighter who damn near killed his GF.
Post contains graphic images:
http://gawker.com/police-searching-for-mma-fighter-who-brutally-attacked-1619217763
@ pallygirl: congrats on no more nuking.
I hope they killed it deader than dead. 🙂
I have family connections to the UFC and I feel really bad for feeling this way but fuck am I glad that War Machine didn’t win the Ultimate Fighter.
Dana White is kinda douche but he’s not a total asshole.
The fact that the article needs to include the fact that Mack repudiated the allegations that she was cheating on him over social media serves as a pretty severe indictment of the culture that spawned the article (sorry Gawker). Since when is the relative severity of domestic violence dependent on one party’s monogamy?
Speaking of itching, and not to compete with anyone, but it turns out my babies are getting over hand, foot and mouth disease while I woke up this morning and can practically watch the blisters spread across my hands.
For some reason, in the young, it doesn’t itch, but it can be excruciating for teens and adults. Making the jump over to me is unusual, apparently.
Plus my temperature spiked to 101.7 F (37 C) last night and I spent the evening shivering under the covers, but my temperature is normal this morning.
For the record, ear infections eat dead mice.
Especially since I can’t take any drugs that make me drowsy, or dizzy, or have the warning label on the prescription: “Use Caution when Operating Dangerous Equipment”
Double especially: Because I’m a hobbyist musician who’s used to hearing everything, and by the volume control of my car radio, I’m down 50% at the moment, and it’s DRIVING ME UP A WALL! WHINE!!!!
The reduced hearing is worse than the pain, but the pain’s obnoxious.
I can still do my paid job, but I had to skip my last ride along with the career firefighters: a half deaf EMT in pain is not the first person I’d like doing anything to me in the back of an ambulance…
@Falconer
Hope you feel better, soon!
@Pallygirl
Yay for being done with radiation! Crossing my fingers that the cancer is deader than the deadest thing that exists, and that the rest of you heals up right quick.
@Falconer: the trick I am using is to keep the area as cool as possible, it cuts down on the itching. It may be summer/autumn where you are, so this may not be feasible. But cool packs help. Also, if possible, don’t wear clothing on the area as I’m finding clothes – particularly seams – rub and irritate.
@contrapangloss: is it a bacterial infection?
My armpit was a bit itchy last night, so I looked at it in the bathroom mirror. Down the bottom, which got the radiation, it’s a mass of itchy bumps and dry skin and my incision scar from the surgery in late May is also highly irritated – and it was not a happy area to begin with. The radiation therapists suggested no deodorant for 10 days to help the area heal, I’m going to follow that advice. I have leave for the next week so I won’t pong out any co-workers. I can kill pain sufficiently with analgesics, I wish there was something I could do to take away the itching for any length of time.
If anyone has good experience with anti-itch remedies, I’m keen to hear advice. For example, is calendula cream good and, if so, do I just use the one for babies?
I fantasize about soaking for hours in a warm bath of calomine lotion.
Both of ours got the super duper, turbo-charged, bad version in their early teens. One thing to watch out for that the doctors hadn’t warned us of, the older one had terrible pain in her feet on standing.
(When I say the “bad” version, I mean that one was off school for 3 months, the other for 5. The one good thing we got from that was finding out just how good our remote education system is here. They were fantastic.)
I just found out about this movie, I think I need to buy it:
Oh man, Dark Dungeons is fantastic! You can see the first 8 minutes here:
Everything is so spot-on: The deliberately wooden acting, the stilted evangelical Christian-speak, the bad guys who are a mashup of everything a concerned parent in the 1980s ever worried about. I kept playing 3:15 over and over because it was making me crack up!
LOL, too chicken to play RPG!
Shingles. On the side of my head. That is all.
Oh shit, ouch. You have my sympathies.
A folk remedy for itching (that isn’t shingles) is a bath with oatmeal mixed into the water. Pure oats, no syrup or sugar added, in case it’s not obvious. It makes slimy water that soothes you. You need to really clean the tub right after, though, because that shit hardens like concrete.
Also, pallygirl, since it’s a burn, maybe try aloe vera? If you get the plant and use the ooze from the leaves, it won’t have any added chemicals, and it feels really good after sunburn. As I recall, it helps with the itching & peeling, too. (I’ve learned not to be in the sun that long, so I haven’t really needed it in a while.)
Hmm.. oatmeal, I haven’t heard that before. I went to the chemist and got this to use instead of soap (and I use a mild soap anyway because of allergies, but even mild soap isn’t mild enough at the moment): http://www.egopharm.com/pinetarsolbar/
The chemist is also ordering in a special burns product that is used for this itching side effect. It will be here in two days. The chemist was also surprised that now I have finished treatment, none of the radiation people are monitoring me. At least I’ve made sure I’ve kept my GP in the loop.
I asked about aloe vera, as a lot of the sunburn creams here contain it, and I’ve been instructed to avoid anything with aloe vera in it.
Wow. That “avoid aloe vera” made me go “huh.” and google it. Holy mixed messages! It must be so, SO frustrating to have to navigate all the chemicals for your after-treatment care, on top of the treatment, on top of the fucking cancer.
Fuck cancer. I hope your discomfort subsides quickly.
Thanks @Unimaginative, yep and when the skin issues started cropping up properly in week 3, after I’d already sorted out the damn allergies to what they recommended I use, this is just so frustrating. Apparently even antihistamines won’t work, because the bumps aren’t an allergic reaction.
But on the good news side, I have my Hello Kitty nose piercing end in. It’s really pretty. 🙂
Pinetarsal is one winner. The other is Ego Skin Care’s eczema product line. All soap-free, soap-alternatives. They have a bath oil for flare ups that may be soothing.