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← Return to Deciding on radiation or not
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Breast Cancer | Last Active: Oct 31, 2023 | Replies (74)
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@frogjumper I know this been an anxious time for you deciding on this. I will tell you I had some side effects, bad sunburn, and fatigue from radiation. It was 18 years ago and radiation has come a long way, but those are the common side effects I hear from friends as well. I dealt with the sunburn with chilled 100% aloe Vera gel, no alcohol. I used every few hours, then aquaphor at night when I was home for the day.
I do not regret this, yes there is a possibility of other side effects down the road, but I never had to ask myself if I had done everything possible to stop this thing.
Are you still thinking about Proton beam therapy, or are you considering brachytherapy?
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Thank you, it has been torturous! Today though I talked to my friend who had a rare blood cancer and we chatted about cancer therapy. And he said for me to not beat myself up because I could not make a decision because ultimately all of the 3 adjuvant therapies had very modest benefit, meaning were any of them worth the risk. It's one thing to know that benefit outweighs risk it's another thing when it's almost even or leaning more towards more risk than reward.
And some people view my actions as risky, because they believe you need to follow protocol. So when they question my decision du jour it freaks me out, then I go back to thinking lets rethink this.
This mind torture has been by far the most painful part of my breast cancer!