As you can see, the blog got a boost this past week thanks to my team behind the scenes. New branding, and new ways we interact. You will see the same general content and from time to time, content specific only to subscribers.
But the blog wasn’t the only thing to get a boost this week. Last week I passed the 15-session mark of full breast radiation. As a reminder, the full breast radiation covers from clavicle down to two fingers below the breast and from the sternum over to under the armpit. At session 16, the boost intensity has been applied for the remaining five sessions. This will be targeted specifically at the tumor cavity. Again, for those not familiar with treatments, this therapy is targeted against LOCAL recurrence in the same breast. This does not address the bilateral recurrence nor recurrence distally. The distal recurrence is a risk I took in weighing the benefit of chemo. The risk and damage to my body would not have moved those numbers much, so although we will beat this round, there may always be a fear or metastatic recurrence.
Up through the 15th session, I had very limited side effects. The radiologist did warn me that side effects may not surface, nor peak till 1-2 weeks after sessions stop and can take weeks to months to resolve. I thought maybe I was just an impenetrable fortress, but alas, the side effects came rearing their ugly heads this weekend. I will wait to share photos closer to their peak so patients can understand what is to come.
The burns came on quickly and are incredibly itchy and uncomfortable. It is causing my incisions that were healing so well to become a bit inflamed and angry. The pain is tolerable. I use a colossal amount of hydrocortisone cream with aloe, beef tallow, Aquaphor, Kaizen Cream and Calendula cream. With three more sessions to go, I am hoping this will be manageable without prescription intervention, but let me tell you, it does not go well with this summer heat. I had a mild bit of fatigue this weekend, but staying well hydrated and eating tons of protein has likely saved me from most of that. I am getting a bit of swelling and tightness under the arm, but I had my LDEX scan on Friday and thankfully, my score has only moved 0.5 points since my presurgical baseline.
This week I will graduate from radiation. I will get a two-week break until we move into Phase 3, Tamoxifen, and back to both the oncologist and integrative care doctor in August. It is wild how fast this has all moved, but I am grateful for every phase that is now behind me.
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