Milestones Matter, Why You Should Celebrate the Wins
- ‘Today Show’ host Jill Martin Brooks, 47, rallied with her doctors as she completed radiation therapy. This milestone moment comes on the heels of her finishing up grueling “Red Devil” chemotherapy.
- She was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. She’s experienced hair loss and other side effects while working toward remission. She’s shared her emotional journey in part to motivate other women battling the disease.
- Radiation therapy uses high-energy beams such as X-rays targeted at cancer cells to kill them. For breast cancer patients, radiation is commonly used after surgery to kill off any remaining cancer cells in the breast or surrounding area.
- Though painless during its administration, radiation therapy can cause skin irritations, fatigue, and hair loss in the short term.
- Reaching milestones during or after a cancer battle is a big deal. Milestones may include things like getting engaged or reaching another birthday, except they may mean even more than they did previously. Hence, it’s important to take them all in and celebrate all you’ve overcome.
For “Today Show” host Jill Martin, her candid and vulnerable breast cancer journey has been emotional every step of the way. As she reaches a significant milestone, Martin wraps up 16 rounds of radiation therapy just weeks after finishing grueling “Red Devil” chemotherapy.
In a new social media post, the “Steals and Deals” guru was overwhelmed with glee as she walked into her doctor’s office to receive her last treatment. As the sweet sounds of Eumir Deodato and Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration” blared over loudspeakers, Martin gazed at mini-strobe lights shining throughout the room. Following her last treatment, Martin hugged her care team, closing the door on this stage of her breast cancer journey.
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Radiation Therapy for Breast Cancer
Radiation therapy uses high-energy beams such as X-rays targeted at cancer cells to kill them. For breast cancer patients, radiation is commonly used after surgery to kill off any remaining cancer cells in the breast or surrounding area.“When it comes to radiation therapy to the breast, what we’re learning is that shorter courses of radiation, like short course whole breast, may be associated with equal clinical outcomes and even the potential for reduced side effects,” Dr. Chirag Shah, the Director of Breast Radiation Oncology at Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center tells SurvivorNet.
Depending on how the radiation is administered, patients may feel something — but the treatment itself cannot be felt because it is simply ionizing energy that goes through the body.
WATCH: How does radiation feel on the body?
“Now, sometimes, you might feel the place where we place the tumor. If we’re placing applicators in the cancer, you might feel that. Or if you’re lying on a table and we’re holding you still, you might feel that. But the actual treatment is just ionizing energy. So, you don’t feel the treatment itself,” Radiation Oncologist Dr. Subhakar Mutyala explains to SurvivorNet.
Radiation has benefits, but it also comes with some side effects. Many cancer survivors who underwent radiotherapy say it impacts their skin, causing bright, red, swollen, dry, tight, itchy, blistered, or flaky skin.
Other side effects of radiation may include fatigue and hair loss.
RELATED: Coping with hair loss during cancer treatment.
Milestones After Cancer
For cancer warriors and their families, reaching life’s milestones is a big deal. Milestones can be the birth of a child or grandchild, getting married, traveling on a dream vacation, reaching another birthday, or something else. Most importantly, these milestones during or after a cancer battle tend to have a more significant meaning because, often, cancer patients gain a greater sense of gratitude toward their lives.
According to Cancer.net, patients and their support groups filled with loved ones may engage in some activities to help recognize and celebrate memorable milestones. These activities include planning a nice dinner or party-like gathering and spending time donating money or volunteering to a cancer charity. Perhaps the way you memorialize your cancer milestone could be independent of others. Examples include a solitary walk-in nature and allowing your senses to take hold while you reflect.
More on Jill’s Brave Cancer Journey
The brave and resilient journalist was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer last year. Her diagnosis came shortly after she underwent genetic testing and learned she carried the BRCA gene mutation, which increased her chance of developing cancer, including breast and ovarian.
After Brooks learned she carried the BRCA gene, she planned to get a preventative mastectomy to minimize her cancer risk. The procedure Brooks attempted to pursue is a prophylactic or preventive mastectomy, which removes breast tissue to prevent cancer from developing. This procedure is an option for women at higher risk, such as Brooks, who carried the BRCA gene mutation.
WATCH: Understanding the BRCA Gene Mutation
As the “Steals and Deals” guru said previously, she’s undergoing an aggressive form of chemo called “the red devil.” This form of chemo involves anthracyclines, an adjuvant chemotherapy treatment given after surgery. Research published in JACC: CardioOncology says anthracyclines offer a “10% improvement in disease-free survival and a 7% improvement in overall survival, compared with the initial standard regimen of cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and 5-fluorouracil.”
Anthracycline and taxane (a class of chemotherapy drugs) have become a mainstay for breast cancer treatment. However, despite the effectiveness of these chemotherapy drugs, they come with intense side effects such as nausea, vomiting, and alopecia (hair loss), which helped give it its “red devil” nickname.
Brooks’ treatment also involved a double mastectomy (removal of both breasts), and she had 17 lymph nodes removed. She said she still has more treatment ahead of her with a hysterectomy to reduce her ovarian cancer risk further because of the BRCA gene mutation.
She recently hinted on an Instagram story that she is also nearing the end of radiation therapy.
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