Monday, August 2, 2010

Not for the faint-hearted

I just started my fourth week of radiation today...I have eight fractions left, and then I will officially be DONE with active treatment and in remission!

I met with my radiation oncologist at my weekly appointment on Thursday. At that time, my underarm was an interesting shade of blackened red, but the skin was still intact. She actually said she was impressed that my skin has held up so well through all she's put me through (I guess that was a compliment?!) She told me she'd stop the bolus (YAY!) and also gave me silver cream (and described it as Neosporin on steroids!) to use if my skin breaks open. Sure enough, by Saturday, it did. There's some lovely fresh pink skin poking out under the charred mess over it.

I took a picture just to have it, and figured I'd post it here in case you're curious about what a radiation burn looks like. It's not terribly pretty, so if you're squeamish or faint-hearted, do not scroll down. I guess the good news is that since I don't have much feeling under my arm from my surgery, it actually hurts a lot less than it looks like it would!










My underarm after 20 radiation fractions:

1 comment:

  1. My underarm is getting dangerously close to looking like that as well! Ouch!!

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