Hi I’ve just joined this group this morning, i start my last five sessions of chemoradiation this week. My burns are son painful & sore, weeping & bleeding. I can’t walk sit or lie comfortable. I’ve been given Instal gel but find it works only for a while, I have fentanyl patches for pain I was offered oral morph but don’t like the way it makes me feel, we only have a shower at home so can’t sit & soak in a bath. My oncologist said to try kitchen roll to dry the area I’ve found that a great help.
my tumour was removed in February I’ve had 4.5 weeks of chemoradiation so far as I mentioned earlier I have 5 sessions next week to get through.
any suggestions how to get through the next 3 weeks or so and of a cream or ointment that may help.
Hi SandyB47,
Welcome to the online community although I’m sorry you’ve had the need to find us.
You've already received some great advice from both & . If you don’t have a bath to soak in I’d definitely look into buying a portable bidet (I got mine from Amazon) they sit on top of your toilet & you can fil with warm salt water & just sit & soak, I found Epsom or Dead Sea salt baths was where I was most comfortable when things got sore. Fortunately I wasn’t too bad throughout treatment but my side effects kicked in once treatment had finished & peaked around 11 days after & I was either soaking in the bath, in bed or on the sofa as moving around was too painful but rest assured when things begin healing it’s amazing how quickly the new skin forms & things get better. I was also advised by another member on here to try the hairdryer on a cool setting to dry things off. I also used Water Wipes instead of loo roll etc., as anything else felt so abrasive! As far as oral pain relief goes I was given oramorph but unfortunately it made me terribly constipated, which was something I really didn’t need! so I was then prescribed codeine which sadly did the same, seems my system must be super sensitive to opiates! I ended up just alternating paracetamol & ibuprofen 2 hourly which helped a little.
Your journey sounds very similar to my own, if you click on my username it’ll take you to my profile where you can read a little more, but I also had my tumour removed surgically (February 2018) followed by 4.5 weeks of chemoradiotherapy (PLATO Trial), I’ve not come across many of us that have had surgical removal as first line treatment, my surgeon said back then there’s only around 1 in 600 that are diagnosed with AC that are able to have surgery first, my chemoradiotherapy was then termed as ‘mop-up’ treatment as a tiny area around the tumour only had a 1mm clearance from the surgery which apparently is the cut off for further treatment.
I hope this helps a little & good luck with the remainder of your treatment hopefully it’ll fly by & you’ll be on the road to recovery really soon.
Nicola
