So ... tell me about Radiotherapy!

[Snowstorm]

Dear Mumsnetters who read this ...

My wonderful mother has clawed and fought her way through a mastectomy and a course of chemotherapy as, at 66 years old, she was unexpectantly diagnosed with breast cancer after a routine mammogram last summer. (She also had cancerous cells in her lymph nodes in her right armpit.) She's had the most awful time with the chemo but she's just finished the course (HUGE HOORAY!) ... and now she has a couple of weeks break before she starts 3 weeks of radiotherapy, 5 days a week, concentrating on the area where her right breast was, up in to the shoulder area.

We are expecting extreme tiredness and very sensitive/sore skin ... but I'm not sure what else goes with it. I wouldn't mind knowing though (although I won't be telling her), so please could anyone who has a moment please let me know what they know of radiotherapy and possible side-effects.

For anyone who doesn't want to appear negative, please don't worry, I know everyone's different but after all the side effects my mother's suffered with the chemo (vomitting for 3 days after each dose, 10-14 day recovery period before she could even contemplate most normal daily stuff, hair dropped out after first dose, burn marks on her skin, the most horrendous thrush in her mouth, peeling skin, huge weight loss, ulcers in her mouth, loss of taste buds, depression, constant metallic taste in her mouth so she found it difficult to eat/drink, yellowing fingernails that are ultra sensitive with blood blisters underneath and are probably about to fall out ... and this is just the stuff she told me!) I'm feeling relatively unshakeable at this point.

Thank you so much in advance.

Snowstorm

My mum had radiotherapy after a lumpectomy, and is now five years clear
Her lasting side effects are tenderness under her arm and a need to use very gentle/natural deodorants, and lympoedema. The lympeodema (a very swollen right arm and hand) has been the most distressing for her, as she feels it is really noticeable (it isn't). She has to wear loose sleeves etc. Manual lymphatic drainage helped a bit, but she's learning to live with it now.
All the best to your mum. It's a difficult time. Both mum and I found the cancerbacup website a really useful resource for information like this.

My experience of radiotherpy was that it was a walk in the park in comparison to chemo! (and my side effects from chemo weren't as bad as your mums).

I really didn't have many side effects at all, apart from feeling a bit tired with the constant too-ing and fro-ing to the hospital. My top tip would be to recommend to your mum that she tries to get an early appointment, when there is far less chance of her appointment being delayed.

My skin started coming off around the site in week 4 (I had five weeks) and that was sore for a while, but they gave me gel to put on the affected area, which was only about an inch long and not very wide - basically along my scar line.

Since then, my boob and underarm are sore even now (2.5 years later) and mammograms are very painful. I too have a touch of lympheodema, but not everyone gets it, and if you do, you are referred to a specialist nurse who can help with all sorts treatment options. The earlier you get treatment, the more control you have over it.

Hope it all goes well.

My fingers are very tightly crossed that radiotherapy will be so very much easier on my mother than chemo, but her nurses have told her that if she found chemo hard then she's likely to react quite badly to radiotherapy too ... sometimes I wish they weren't quite so honest as she really did not want to hear that!

Thank you for your messages, it was good to hear from you both.