Post 13: Radiotherapy

These photos are taken in the past day or so, showing not only where I’m currently at, but also how much the skin on my chest has recovered.

It’s amazing how well it’s all healed, especially considering how red and infected it all was just a few weeks ago.

From deep lobster red, to super baby-soft.

As part of the radiotherapy, I was given ‘Flamigel’, a special gel to apply to the treatment area. It smelt just like ‘after-sun’, and had that same consistency.

The radiographers in Newmarket thought I had allergic reaction to the gel, which just meant I had to hold-fire on it until it calmed down. But when it got really infected and went a crusty/patchy-yellow, I had to use hydrocortisone cream. Whereas the gel was instant cooling and soothing, very much like after-sun, the HC cream was very definitely not! It momentarily added more burn to the already-burnt area, but settled fairly quickly.

In terms of the hair on my chest (not that I particularly had a great deal...!), by about week 4, the radiotherapy had almost caused it all to drop out; as I had been (later) applying moisturising cream to my chest several times a day, it’s left that half all silky smooth and baby-soft.

Sensation-wise, it all appears to be ok – not numb or anything like that.

Being real about it, the radiation was specially targeted to aim away from my thyroid in my lower neck and the lung on my right side as much as possible, but there’s a chance that I’ll develop issues in those areas as a result of the treatment.

#sarcoma #radiotherapy #cancer #cancertreatment #rt #skin #chest