My name's Helen. I am 21 years old and I was diagnosed with primary mediastinal large b-cell lymphoma.
I had to have radiotherapy and I was a bit apprehensive but from what they had told me,
I knew it was nowhere near as invasive or as time-consuming as chemotherapy.
I started radiotherapy at the end of August and I had it for 4 weeks.
I had 22 rounds. If my appointment was at 1pm, I would get up at 9am or earlier
depending if I was tired or not. I would always make sure I'd eat before I got there as well.
Always make sure to drink as well. Keep hydrated.
I would get the train up to London and I would
go and sign in at the front desk and I'd have to wait in the waiting room.
Then someone would call your name.
You see the same people. There's normally two radiation staff.
If you're a woman, you have taken top and your bra off but they give you a hospital gown
to cover you. In the planning process, you also have a paper mask made of you.
If you have radiotherapy to the head, you obviously some mesh you have to put over your face.
I had it to my chest. I had to have my arms up like that.
It's quite painful to keep it like that so they
made a mold out of me and I had to put my hands on some metal bars to make sure
I was in the right place. In your planning, you get tattoos made. They are very small dots.
You can't see them at all. They're used to make sure things line up.
They then have to get out of the room and be in their little room outside.
Then the machine just goes around you.
When it's done, they come in and lower the bed 'cause they'd put you up really high.
Then you'd get changed and get your appointment for the next day.
If you're having radiotherapy to the chest, I'd definitely suggest to cover up and make sure
this area is not exposed hot weather or hot water, especially in the shower.
It felt as if I had a really bad sunburn. If you're using really nice shower gels and bubble baths
you'd probably have to stop that and use, for example, a no-fragrance cream.
It will be really, really tender. I also suffered with a really sore throat.
The radiotherapy was just catching the end of my oesophagus and I couldn't
eat many solid foods toward the end of it.
With radiotherapy, the effects of it happen much later. The first week you feel fine.
It's towards the end and afterwards that you really feel really weird.
For example, I had to eat soup and things like that, especially if I was in pain with something else.
I couldn't swallow tablets so I had to start using soluble paracetamol.
Make sure you're not overdoing it. You can get really tired with radiotherapy
Just the journey of going up there and coming home. Make sure you have someone with you
to help you get home.
Always keep hydrated. Take a bottle of water with you and make sure you look after your skin.
You can get a bit claustrophobic when this massive machine is turning around you.
You can play your music from your phone for 10 minutes. It's not very long at all.
The radiotherapy people were lovely and you get to know them a lot.
When that finished, I was quite sad to not see them. But, in the nicest possible way, I really did not want to see them.