Inflammation from Radiation (groin)??

Linda,

I can only address my specific situation.  I had the radiation after the WLE and LND.  Just finished 6 weeks of treatment on 8/31 so it is fresh in my mind.  It took at least a week before the radiated area started to turn red and swell up from the lymph fluid build up.  The pain started to build in the second week.  The Dr. prescribed Vicadin which helped and later Gabapentin in the last week which also helped.  They should have prescribed the Gabapentin earlier in the treatment.  Since I had a quite large skin graft, that area got real red and sore and a lot of skin was shed from that area.  i guess not all of the skin was shed from the skin graft because it is starting to heal now.  I am not in any real pain now anyway.  Make sure the radiation group gives you some cream to put on your leg.  Some people had to buy their own cream, but my treatment center started me out on some regular lotion and switched to radiaplex gel a few weeks into treatment when the skin started to get more swollen, red and sore.

The area where they did the LND was also radiated and that became red and swollen and the skin separated along the scar line.  Hurt a little bit.  Dr. had some auquaphor gel to put on and that helped.

I had leg swelling before the radiation, but the upper thigh became more swollen since the lymph fluid could not move down my leg due to the skin graft and radiated areas and did not have much room to move up to my abdomen because of the radiated area around the LND.  I was able to massage it a little bit, when it did not hurt and sometimes that helped, but the upper thigh was still swollen most of the time.  About one week after the radiation ended the swelling started to lessen.   I have been wearing a compression stocking on the leg since a few weeks after the surgery and have worn that during the radiation treatments.  I went to physical therapy and they gave me a few tubagrip stockings to put on my lower leg for extra compression and a larger size for my thigh to help hold up the gauze and wrapping I had to put over my skin graft area.

Your situation will be different because you have not had the surgery yet.  The leg will hurt from the radiation and will swell up, but each situation will be different.  I would hope that you start to see improvement 1 week after the radiation ends and the swelling and other radiation issues with your skin should be gone after one month.  Your radiation oncologist should be able to explain this to you.  When I went in for a check up after 1 week, my radiation oncologist was encouraged by how good my leg looked.  he thought it would look worse than it did.  yea for me.   It looked good to me, felt good, i was not walking with crutches and was not moaning from pain like I was a week prior.  Pain is bad.

Good luck.  i did not enjoy my radiation treatment and know others who have had to undergo multiple surgeries and multiple radiation treatments.  Last week i would have said i would never go through that again, but if you get enough pain medicine up front it should not be too bad and I would do it again if I had to and they expected it to offer some percentage of improvement in my situation.

Bill

Linda,

I can only address my specific situation.  I had the radiation after the WLE and LND.  Just finished 6 weeks of treatment on 8/31 so it is fresh in my mind.  It took at least a week before the radiated area started to turn red and swell up from the lymph fluid build up.  The pain started to build in the second week.  The Dr. prescribed Vicadin which helped and later Gabapentin in the last week which also helped.  They should have prescribed the Gabapentin earlier in the treatment.  Since I had a quite large skin graft, that area got real red and sore and a lot of skin was shed from that area.  i guess not all of the skin was shed from the skin graft because it is starting to heal now.  I am not in any real pain now anyway.  Make sure the radiation group gives you some cream to put on your leg.  Some people had to buy their own cream, but my treatment center started me out on some regular lotion and switched to radiaplex gel a few weeks into treatment when the skin started to get more swollen, red and sore.

The area where they did the LND was also radiated and that became red and swollen and the skin separated along the scar line.  Hurt a little bit.  Dr. had some auquaphor gel to put on and that helped.

I had leg swelling before the radiation, but the upper thigh became more swollen since the lymph fluid could not move down my leg due to the skin graft and radiated areas and did not have much room to move up to my abdomen because of the radiated area around the LND.  I was able to massage it a little bit, when it did not hurt and sometimes that helped, but the upper thigh was still swollen most of the time.  About one week after the radiation ended the swelling started to lessen.   I have been wearing a compression stocking on the leg since a few weeks after the surgery and have worn that during the radiation treatments.  I went to physical therapy and they gave me a few tubagrip stockings to put on my lower leg for extra compression and a larger size for my thigh to help hold up the gauze and wrapping I had to put over my skin graft area.

Your situation will be different because you have not had the surgery yet.  The leg will hurt from the radiation and will swell up, but each situation will be different.  I would hope that you start to see improvement 1 week after the radiation ends and the swelling and other radiation issues with your skin should be gone after one month.  Your radiation oncologist should be able to explain this to you.  When I went in for a check up after 1 week, my radiation oncologist was encouraged by how good my leg looked.  he thought it would look worse than it did.  yea for me.   It looked good to me, felt good, i was not walking with crutches and was not moaning from pain like I was a week prior.  Pain is bad.

Good luck.  i did not enjoy my radiation treatment and know others who have had to undergo multiple surgeries and multiple radiation treatments.  Last week i would have said i would never go through that again, but if you get enough pain medicine up front it should not be too bad and I would do it again if I had to and they expected it to offer some percentage of improvement in my situation.

Bill