Even though I am officially cancer free, my doctors thought that it would be a good idea to do radiation to decrease my risk of reoccurrence. In my case radiation reduces the risk of reoccurrence by 2/3, which is a huge deal to me. So I am officially doing radiation, and I am currently in the middle of it. My prescription is for 30 treatments, I go in every day Monday through Friday for 30 rounds.
So far radiation has been the easiest treatment thus far. I essentially lay on a table, the techs place me in the exact same spot every time using measurements that they took during a scan/simulation. I have a couple of very small tattoos along with some marking that are drawn on each time with a sharpie that they use to line everything up. Once I'm in position the machine comes up and over me, and makes a small sound and then the process repeats a couple of times. The entire session lasts about 20 minutes. Piece of cake, compared to chemo or surgery.
Short term side affects are skin irritation and fatigue. My side affects have been pretty mild, my skin irritation just looks a bit pink, like I've been out sunbathing topless. The fatigue isn't bad either, I just go to bed a bit earlier or try to catch a nap. Those side affects should go away after about 2-3 weeks once treatment is done.
Long term side affects are bit more unpredictable. And they have to tell you all the scary horrible things that could go wrong. Who really wants to hear all this?! Makes a person think twice about doing radiation. On me, there isn't any way possible to avoid hitting a small part of my lung. My doctors assured me that it would be a tiny amount and that I would not notice it. Ugh! Also they are going to have to be extremely careful that they don't hit my heart. This was major negative side affect 20 years ago before 3D images, now it really shouldn't be a problem because they can see exactly where my heart is, so they will be able to avoid it. My least favorite possible side affect is that there is a small chance that I might incur another type of cancer as a result, of undergoing radiation. What the What!
All things considered....... For me, I need to know that I did everything possible to avoid BC coming back. So hear we are, half way through radiation. Hopefully this nightmare will be over soon.
