Getting well proved to be challenging during my last week of LINAC (linear accelerator) radiotherapy (RT). The RT prescribed to me consisted of three 30-second exposures, one was high-intensity using photons to reach the inner recesses of the treatment site while the other two used electrons and targeted the superficial layers of skin and muscle.
I was fine until Day 25 when I completed the high-intensity (photon) exposures. The electron exposures were to be given an additional three days or up to Day 28.
On Day 26, I developed blisters and raw skin began to appear on the treatment site. They were really painful. What’s more, I ran out of the ointment for radiation burns on Day 27 and couldn’t get a new one until Day 28 which, due to a holiday, a weekend and the doc’s sked, fell five days later.
Aside from the stinging pain, the treatment site looked horrible and I felt down in the dumps for most of the last two weeks. My children and husband gave me major support, helping me place the required ointments and creams, where I couldn’t see or reach. The scabs which formed later on wide areas of the treatment site also limited my movement to some degree.
I never felt so ugly in my entire life, but of course the treatment site was hidden from public view by the loose cotton shirts I’ve been wearing since RT began. Norman took a photo of the site on Day 28, and if some of you have the stomach for medical skin cases, you can compare it with the photo my children took on Day 23.
I am posting them to guide future RT patients on what may happen toward the end of treatment. But I warn you, it is very ugly so please don’t check it out if you are squeamish about these things.
As in all days throughout the treatment, God has given me wonderful gifts even in the midst of trial and pain. Aside from receiving new and additional donations, I was able to hold the hands of two co-patients who began RT as I was finishing mine. I shared with them my experience and showed them my treatment site. I now pray they will avoid some mistakes I made like forgetting to bring my ointment on a treatment day and also forgetting to go to some doctor’s appointments.
I also stopped wearing my bandannas after Day 27 and began going to places (church, office, supermarket, etc.) bald. What a liberating experience! After wearing a bandanna for six months, going bald made me feel free and well.
Finally, by God’s grace I have been able to continue playing badminton two or three times a week. It’s like pain therapy for me because I forget all my aches when I start hitting that shuttlecock. I am playing so lousily, and I thank my husband and neighbors for indulging me even if I pose no challenge to their practice for a neighborhood tourney.
I am thinking of joining the tournament myself, so I am praying fervently that my wounds will heal and the site will not scar, at least not too badly, so that I can improve my level of play.
When I think about these last two weeks and see how horrible the left side of my chest looks right now, I think the Lord Almighty is reminding me gently to slow down. My oncologist told me to rest for a month after chemotherapy before beginning RT but I wanted so much to get my treatments over and done with that I started RT 13 days after my last chemo.
As a result, my skin’s ability to heal itself was quite disabled, and I until now, my wounds are healing ever so slowly. This is because the chemo drugs attacked all rapidly dividing cells, primarily to kill the cancer cells, but also including all other such rapidly dividing cells like those on my skin and in my stomach.
Admittedly, I can never go back to my old self. I may be getting better and getting well, but I must remember that the rigors of cancer and its treatment have aged my body beyond my biological years. It is a fact I have to accept.
Nonetheless, like Soraya, the singer who also went through breast cancer treatment, “I thank the Lord I’m no one else.”
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| Radiotherapy Day 23 |
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| Radiotherapy Day 28 |
