Karen's first week of radiation was so mild I'd considered not posting about it at all. We started Tuesday because Karen had been hoping to attend a particular charitable event on Monday. But she just felt too bad to go. However, as the week went on and we were further away from her last day of chemotherapy, she continued to improve. My biggest concern over starting radiation was fatigue, but by the end of this first week she has more energy than I've seen in awhile. The new pain meds seem to be helping a lot and aren't having the same lethargic effect on Karen that she had when on this dose before. Perhaps she has built up some tolerance.
I suggested she treat the areas where we're expected to see the sunburn‑like skin irritation as if it were already there, and to keep lotion and ointment on the areas. Even though we can't see any damage after these first treatments there's no question that damage is being done. So we'll see if that pays off in the long run. They did tell us we won't begin to see these kinds of side effects until we're 5 to 10 treatments in. The treatment themselves are between 5 and 10 minutes long. That's it. Scheduling still has to put us down for a 45 minute block due to what sounds like machine prep that has to be done, but Karen pretty much goes straight in after we arrive. We've never had to wait more than a few minutes.
