Radiotherapy question

Hello. I was advised and have read comments on radiotherapy thread. Choices seem to range but recommendations have been Aveeno, E45, zero base. Some hospitals give you cream, others only recommend. Depends what you like but un perfumed, aquecream seems to be the favourite.  Sudocrem also good as I got a huge reaction under boob for a few days and this helped x

Same reason they won't tell you whether to have one mastectomy, two, DIEP, flat or implant when advised you can have reconstruction ............so you can blame yourself if it all goes pear shaped and wish you'd done something else??? I found what you say really annoying too. I requested a certain gel from my G.P. which the pharmacy would not supply without a letter from the Radiography Dept purely because the staff had never heard of it. Faced with all the different ones, which brings on a blind panic in itself, I bought some aqueous cream, which I thought was great, a dual purpose wash and moisturiser. When my skin went pink on 4th day I was told not to moisturise with it, just wash. I used Aveeno cream with active Colloidal Oatmeal for dry and sensitive skin and can recommend this. I have had some funny unexplained rashes in the past (G.P. didn't know what caused them) plus eczema so was expecting a skin reaction. I have used an ocean of it though. All is well now.

The best advice I’ve had is to make sure the moisturiser suits your skin now so that it won’t irritate you later. Fir example I’m horribly allergic to E45 so I’m glad I know that. I’ve been using Waitrose Pure body lotion and Palmers Cocoa Butter - the latter smells like chocolate so it makes me hungry

I'm due to start radiotherapy soon and have been advised to use E45 cream by the breast care team. But have not been told about using it at the moment.

Cazzann

This is a really helpful little article to read:

120521emollients.pdf (ouh.nhs.uk)

Thanks so much everyone for your valued advice.  Im so grateful x

I found aqueous cream the best. It's water based and I still use it now as I have found it to be the best moisturiser, I have very dry skin so when I had radiotherapy my skin dried out but using aqueous cream it was soothed very quickly. Hope you find the right one for you. 

It's brilliant stuff and a very reasonable price ! I found it very soothing. Still use it.

Hi Cazzann my solution to this is a bit unusual but it worked really well for me. 

I bought an aloe vera plant from amazon and once or twice a day I would cut a bit off, peel off the skin and rub the gelatinous see through inside of the plant onto my skin.  It was wonderfully cooling and would absorb immediately into my skin and obviously completely natural.   

It worked an absolute treat for me, my skin was absolutely fine throughout treatment with no reaction at all other than going a little pink on the last couple of days which some extra aloe vera application took care of.  I had the 5 day intensive radiotherapy.

If you want it extra cool you can always cut off a stem from the plant and keep it in the fridge.

I was given aqueous cream by mount vernon and told to use it liberally x