Burned, Peeling and Itchy

Another lunch in the hospital cafe.

Sheila has moved into a new stage of side effects. This new stage of side effects has appeared only about a week before she moves into a new stage of radiation treatment. More on the additional change in treatment another time because I want to write about the current issue... burning, peeling and itching.

At this point in radiation treatment, Sheila's skin is showing some burns. She has already been showing signs of a "tan" for weeks and we have known that the tissue beneath the skin has been getting irritated but now she's getting into burn territory. 

Sheila has been a little bit swollen since her surgery and the radiation isn't really allowing the swelling to go down. She had already been feeling "tender" in the tissue under the skin and that continues to slowly worsen. Sheila says it isn't bad but it is obvious by her guarded reactions to things that she does feel tender in various areas. 

The other night, Sheila's skin began peeling so, little by little, the itching has been worsening too. At this point, the Radiation Oncologist provided a prescription strength hydrocortizone cream to add to her relief options including a number of other creams that she has been using all along. 

She is also using acupuncture geared toward oncology to help with side effects and that seems to be helping considerably. The acupuncture helps to alleviate the effects of the cancer as well as the side effects of treatment.

Shirts and clothing are irritating... she holds her car seatbelt away from her body because it is irritating and a little bothersome... the area under her arm where the affected lymph nodes were removed is quite tender, sore and easily irritated by clothing... and now the itching is worsening throughout the entire right side of her chest all the way around to under her armpit. Fatigue has been a little bit of an issue for the past couple of weeks and that is slowly worsening throughout each week of treatment as well.

Sheila still has another full two weeks and two days of radiation treatment... plus, the lingering radiation will continue to affect her and worsen her side effects for an additional number of weeks beyond the end of radiation treatment. At this point, however, she is at the stage where burning, peeling and itching are the new physical problems though. I should also mention that, emotionally, she's doing well which is necessary to fight the physical problems and doing well emotionally is always a good thing anyway!