Now about 10 weeks (2.5 months) after my last infusion, or almost two months after the end of my last cycle (still getting herceptin for several more months). I hit a big milestone-- I can now put a bow in my hair!
Radiation Side Effects
Yesterday, after six and a half groundhog day-esque weeks, I put radiation behind me. All in all, radiation was a good deal easier than chemotherapy. I can tell that my body is recovering because my exercise tolerance is way up while my need for sleep is way down.
Locally, my skin held up pretty well. I had a burn for about one week in my axilla (this has now resolved-- the axilla only got 23 doses whereas the breast got 25, plus a 5-treatment boost to the lumpectomy site, for a total of 30). I have some skin breakdown around the surgical incision line, primarily because I have a skin fold there, and radiation gets amplified in folds. My cording (also known as axillary web syndrome) flared during the nodal radiation, but has improved significantly with physical therapy. All in all, not too bad.
Radiation Creams
Throughout the treatment I moisturized the area at least twice every day with one of four creams: aquaphor, California Baby calendula cream, Jean's cream, and MyGirls cream. Early on (and overall), I found that MyGirls cream was by far the best (I used it almost exclusively for the first five weeks or so). The aquaphor and the California baby were useful once I started to get some skin breakdown and a burn to mix with lidocaine gel for local relief (MyGirls cream was really too light for this purpose). I did not find the Jean's cream to be particularly good for anything, and so abandoned its use pretty early on.
