Radiation Burns
“25 times! 5 days a week! Radiation here we come! What is it ? Why do we need it? Will it hurt? Will I be tired? Does it really kill cancer cells? Wow!
The machine is huge and somewhat scary and overwhelming but once you get settled in and do the drill it is only 5 minutes long ( give or take) and the machine goes around and around and for me, I felt nothing until……………….. the 4th or 5th week!
I started to see the whole area turn bright red, so I continued to moisturize as much as possible so………… the skin does burn but over time they did fade away but it was not like sitting on a beach in the tropics kind of burn, it was bright red and only in the area that was radiated. Once the burn faded the skin is still hard like cement so this procedure is very powerful and you really do need to keep moisturizing and massaging the area. I remember watching the machine and being very grateful knowing something was being done to stop the spread and kill any cancer cells left behind.”
Radiation therapy damages cells by destroying the genetic material that controls how cells grow and divide. While both healthy and cancerous cells are damaged by radiation therapy, the goal of radiation therapy is to destroy as few normal, healthy cells as possible. Normal cells can often repair much of the damage caused by radiation.