Radiation and I are almost friends at this point. Today was session number 13. 7 to go.
My doctor said the first week of radiation should be “a breeze.” Since radiation builds up over time, the side effects accumulate with each session leaving you with the most impact towards the end of treatment – week 3 or 4. “You may feel tired, you may get a bad sun burn, maybe dermatitis.” These are the expected side effects.
Well, not this girl.
Day FOUR I was crying that I was in pain as I got up on the table, in my green hospital gown, telling the girls (radiation therapists) that I couldn’t lift my arm all the way. They said a pulling feeling was normal.
Per usual, knowing my body, I called my nurse that afternoon and she said to come in.
They said I had a seroma – fluid build up in the cavity where my surgery was. While it’s normal for the body to fill the area, it’s also supposed to absorb it back. When your body needs help, you can have an aspiration which means, having a doctor use a needle to suck out the fluid.
In the moment, on Thursday, day 4 of 20 radiation sessions, I was freaking the fuck out. You said this would be an easy week, I can’t lift my arm straight up and now I have to possibly have another procedure? Tomorrow?
They said that they could then test the fluid to see if there was an infection. Whyyyyy is this happening? We knew I had a seroma there prior to starting radiation and at that time they said that it was risky to aspirate a seroma because any time you introduce a needle into your skin, you risk infection. So… what are we doing?
They gave me an antibiotic, just in case, scheduled the aspiration for the next day and that was that. I was legit shaking on the table – on the table because they had to do an ultrasound to see what was going on.
Another procedure.
“You should feel instant relief when they aspirate you.” I didn’t. I still felt pain in the same area but had a little bit more ROM (range of motion – I saw this abbreviation in one of my medical record notes, lol).
Now, I wasn’t only taking my beloved Tamoxifen every night, I had to take 2 antibiotics in the AM, Ibuprofen throughout the day, and 2 more antibiotics in the PM. So. Much. Medicine.
Friday I went in for the procedure. Dr. Kelly was the doctor. She said this was an “easy” procedure and not to worry. She said, “I don’t know if anyone explicitly said this to you but, this isn’t cancer. Just in case you were worried about that.” Well, being in this situation I am always worried about that so, thank you, that was good to hear.
I couldn’t look – I watched the room’s desktop screensaver switch from elks to flowers to landscapes while she stuck FOUR needles in me to remove 42 cc of fluid. She showed me after – it was yellow, like pee yellow. She said it didn’t look like it was infected. TBH I thought that’s nice but let’s wait for the results… This procedure wasn’t too bad. And, at least I was on the antibiotic to help with the needle risk…
However, when we left, we being Fazal and I, my ride or die, I didn’t feel much better.
I was still in pain, in the same place, right where my body was more red showing everyone, alert: this is the problem area. But, I had to just keep the faith and hope I would feel better. Well, I took the antibiotics, day and night, for 10 days. It took another 2 days until I finally felt like it was slowly getting better.
When I did the CT scan yesterday, my 2nd simulation for my radiation boost, my doctor said the seroma was smaller, thank God!
Ugh.
Onward and upward.