Hot Pink Is Not a Natural Skin Tone
🌼 Date: Thursday, April 23, 2026
⚡ Energy: Slightly crispy
❤️🩹 Status: Radiation reactions have officially arrived
🤔 Outlook: Apparently the solution is… more lotion.
Radiation Treatment: Day 11
Last night as I was slathering on my final coat of lotion before bed, I noticed a few bumps in my left armpit.
My immediate thought was blisters, because that is one of the reactions they warned me to watch out for during radiation.
So naturally, I called in my favorite medical consultant.
Casey.
He took one look and said they looked more like heat rash.
Great. Two completely different theories already.
I decided I would just have the nurses take a look when I got to radiation in the morning.
This morning while I was getting ready, Casey was helping lotion my back (because apparently there are places on your own body you simply cannot reach no matter how determined you are).
While he was doing that, he noticed something else.
A welt on my back.
Fantastic.
Now I had two new things to bring to the nurses.
I was starting to feel like they might need to grab a pen and paper.
Fast forward to my appointment.
I decided to spice things up a little today and chose a different pattern combination on my gowns just to mix things up.
Feeling spicy.
Once I got into the treatment room and started shedding my new fashion choices, I showed the nurses my new badges of honor and told them I was taking a poll.
My guesses so far were:
• Blisters from radiation (my theory)
• Heat rash (Casey’s theory)
The nurses all leaned in for a look.
“Hmmm…”
Then the brainstorming began.
One nurse thought maybe bug bites.
Another suggested clogged hair follicles (which is the polite way to say “zits”).
Meanwhile another nurse had already gone into full problem-solving mode and was typing a message to the front nurses station.
She told me by the end of my treatment they would have an answer.
Already I felt like I was getting better service than I had received in my last couple meetings with the doctor.
Treatment itself went smoothly today.
No equipment issues.
No breathing Olympic do-overs.
Everything worked exactly the way it was supposed to.
And when they finished, I was told to head up to the nurse’s station.
Dianne was expecting me.
And they told me to please keep my gown on.
Now that is what I call service.
I trotted up there with my beautiful robe flowing behind me like some sort of radiation spa guest, and Dianne was already waiting with her iPad.
She led me into the nurse’s area, pulled the curtain closed, and took one look.
Her verdict?
None of our guesses.
Not blisters.
Not heat rash.
Not bug bites.
It’s a radiation reaction.
All of it.
Even the part under my left boob.
Now hold on a minute.
What part under my left boob?
Remember, when they did the double mastectomy they basically cut through all the nerves, so a lot of my chest area is still numb.
So I had no idea something was going on there.
Dianne held up a mirror so I could see it.
And let me just say…
We are not talking about a mild sunburn.
We are talking about my favorite shade of pink.
Hot pink.
Which is definitely not a natural color for human skin.
I asked if that was why it feels warm to the touch.
She looked at me and said,
“Uh… yeah.”
Dianne also told me that radiation reactions usually start around day 11.
Which just happens to be today.
Apparently my body is right on schedule.
Different areas of my body are reacting differently because the skin thickness varies.
• The skin in the armpit is the thinnest, which is why it looks like blister bumps.
• The welt on my back is actually a rash, and she warned me it will likely get bigger.
• The area under my boob is the one she is the most concerned about.
Fantastic.
So now we have a new care plan.
I am officially upgrading from three lotion sessions per day to four.
Each time I slather on the lotion, I am supposed to seal it in with Aquaphor.
If the areas start to itch or burn, I am to grab a frozen bag of peas or corn, because they mold to your body better than a regular ice pack.
And if any of the areas start to:
• weep
• bleed
• or get significantly worse
I am to call them immediately.
She also told me that if the reaction continues to worsen, they can prescribe a medicated cream.
Which immediately made me wonder…
If they know radiation reactions typically show up around day 11, and it happens to something like 9 out of 10 patients, why don’t they just prescribe the cream from the beginning?
If someone turns out to be the lucky 1 out of 10, great — they never need it.
But making the rest of us suffer until someone finally offers the prescription seems a little backwards.
Apparently that cream is treated like some rare artifact.
Locked away.
Guarded.
Protected like the one ring everyone is searching for.
“My precious.”
She also told me that if I have any concerns at all, I can stop by the nurse’s station after any of my treatments and have them take a look.
Now that is bedside manner.
A huge improvement over the doctor.
Casey and I were talking about it tonight and I said,
“Maybe next Wednesday when we meet with the doctor we should ask him for his credentials just to make sure he actually went to medical school.”
Because honestly?
I think he could learn a thing or two from the nurses.
They seem to be the real heroes in the radiation department.
Want to follow the journey from the beginning?
Visit Tiny Tina – Status: Alive (Daily Check-Ins) to see the full timeline of posts.
If you’d like to be notified when a new post goes live, you can subscribe below for free and get an email each time I publish a new entry.
💗 Tina –
One Badass Day at a Time
Leave a comment