Chemotherapy is over and you are wondering how you can help your family or friend going through this. For many people chemotherapy is just one step of the journey. For me I also had 33 days of radiation therapy ahead of me. Honestly I thought the radiation was going to be a piece of cake, I mean isn’t chemo supposed to be the hard part?
My radiation therapy started about a month after chemo ended, first you get little blue tattoo’s placed on you so they can line the machine to every time. If you are trying to think of what to do to help, if your friend is being treated for breast cancer my first suggestion is to get your friend the little Tank tops to wear when they cannot wear a bra (and it will come to that pretty quickly), aloe vera like you use for a bad sun burn and a little pillow to put under her arm.
When you are doing your radiation you may not think that anything is happening, it feels like an x-ray and only last a short time. Radiation is every day Monday – Friday for as long as the treatment plan was set for. For me it was 33 days so 6 1/2 weeks of daily radiation. The first few weeks of radiation were not too bad, and then the burn and exhaustion kicks in. Who would think that laying there for a few minutes a day would wear you out so bad but it really does. By week three your friend will start feeling tired and will need help, if you can drive them to or from, or help around the house it will be greatly appreciated. The support that you can offer will mean so much that words cannot begin to explain how touched they will be your help.