Mepitel Film Review

The results are in and I think the Mepitel film gets a passing grade but unfortunately not 100% from me. Based on all of the positive things I was hearing, I was really hoping to be one of those women that sailed through radiation but no such luck. I got to #20 of 25 regular treatments and one night the skin in my armpit area started to itch like crazy. It wasn't overly red so I wasn't concerned but when I woke up the next morning, 3 pus filled blisters had formed right at the edge of the film. My doctor recommended keeping it on but after 2 days, both the look and smell were really starting to gross me out. Sorry if this post is disgusting but I figured I would share for anyone who is in the same situation. I ended up cutting the film in the affected area and did the remainder of the treatments without it. As soon as I took the film off and showered, it felt so much better. The doctor recommended doing a compress with saline and gauze, 4 times a day for 15 minutes each then letting it breath. The blisters started to go away after only about 2 days of doing this and thankfully, so did the smell. Gross!

I think my problem was two fold:

1. I continued to work out 5 days a week during radiation and having a film over your armpit when you are sweating does not create a good environment.

2. I was applying a small amount of deoderant on my underarm area above the film to avoid sweating. Not a good idea. My Radiation Oncologist who I saw many times before starting and once a week after said nothing to me about the dangers of wearing a regular aluminum containing deoderant during treatment. First of all, I had no idea that so many deodorants contained aluminum and secondly, it makes so much sense now that it would react with my skin. After discovering this, I have read a bunch of blogs with people recommending Crystal, Toms and some other natural deoderants that are safe to wear during radiation.

My last day of radiation was a week ago and after 25 regular treatments and 5 boosters, my armpit is burnt to a crisp. The skin is a mix of black areas that haven't peeled yet, red areas where the skin has just peeled and pink skin where it is starting to heal. The rest of my breast is red but seems to be holding up just fine which is why I think the Mepitel film did work. I have been putting Calendula cream (made from calendula flowers and available at natural food stores) on the areas where the skin is still in tact and it seems to be helping.

Radiation and it's after effects have actually been worse than chemo for me. It seems that in 99% of cases, it is the other way around but as usual, I am an exception to the rule.