I can't believe I didn't put up a single post about radiation. My last treatment was on February 11. It went pretty smoothly - I'll summarize:
Treatment started on the first Monday in January. I set my appointments up for 8:30 a.m., the earliest I could get. I was usually a few minutes early, and they were almost always ready for me as soon as I got there. I remember being horrified when I first found out that radiation treatment is done daily (well every weekday anyway) - but it hardly takes any time at all. The first 5 weeks they zapped the whole breast and much of the armpit for 30 seconds each from 2 different directions; the last week just hit the surgical incision area. Once a week I'd see my doctor right after the treatment, but that was always pretty quick too, just a check-in, how's your skin doing, any other problems, and so on.
So how's my skin? It held up pretty well. It got darker, but that was the only sign for the first 5 weeks. At that point I did finally have some peeling, and it was more like blister peeling than sunburn peeling - the skin underneath was not ready to be exposed! It hurt, and it was weepy. The wound care nurse was a lot of help. That lasted for a little over a week after the treatment was over. Since then it's been peeling like a sunburn. It's still dark, and I still don't have any hair growth in the treatment field. But there's no tenderness at all anymore.
It's a little strange not being in active treatment anymore. But that's a post for another day.
