End of treatment - relief from nerve end burning/itching?

i was told not to use any cooling pads because they make your blood vessels contract and you need a good supply of blood down there to heal x

Oh, this is such a tough time! I was very much where you were, broken glass and open weeping skin and sleeping only when exhaustion overcame the pain. Don't do the stiff upper lip! Go in there and tell them you need more help!

Do you have a bidet attachment on your toilet? That was a huge game-changer for me. I haven't been able to use toilet paper there for a long time, poor sensitive butt, but with radiation, even wet wipes were too painful. If you can't get the bidet thing, use a peri-bottle to cool and clean yourself, including from the acid pee (oh, that was so miserable.)

I had no luck with any of the topicals suggested by my cancer folks. The only ointment I found that helps is called Calmoseptine, and I don't know if it's available in the UK. Very thick and pink, but no fragrance and very soothing.

I took gas pills morning and night to help with the killer air bubbles.

Tell them everything that's happening and don't downplay any of it!

Ah, good to know, I haven't been able to use it anyway as my skin's been in such a terrible state, just starting to see the first signs of healing, so I'll hold off on using the cooling pad, maybe just use it to stave off the heat!

OMG I'm SO glad someone else has mentioned the air bubbles, they are the WORST. Like a nuclear nerve ending bomb going off downstairs. Thankfully the acid pee has subsided now, being about  a week and a half in. I have some ointments for the worst of the skin spits around the butthole, that even though they burn like heck, they seem to really be helping the worst of it heal up a bit. I suspect that area is going to take a long while to heal up fully.

I've had success in the worst parts of it with using emollient cream (the one I have also doubels as a cleanser) on a wet wipe to ensure I was as clean as possible, as well as spending a lot of time in salt baths.

Just adding a real time update here, I'm a week and a half into recovery after finishing radiation (I had the full 28 days). I got oral morphine from the doc, though I found it helped with the overall sense of pain, not much touched that 'nerve ending' kind of sensation pain, including the amitriptyline tablets (for neuropathic pain) I was given. I did find keeping a solid  2 hr regime with OTC painkillers seemed to help a little, and had a board keeping track of what i'd taken when, cause my brain is all over the place right now.

I've found the worst of the symptoms very mentally tough to deal with, this treatment can make you feel very inhuman at times, the pain is a physical thing that can be dealt with or lessened with things, but I wish I'd been a little kinder to myself  when things didn't work as well as I'd hoped, or things I thought couldn't possibly get worse did.

For the most part it's felt very much like a 'grin and bear it' thing for the first week after finishing, spending a *lot* of time in the bathroom in salt baths and reapplying flamigel forte and hydro after every bath or as needed.I'm lucky enough my work gave me a decent chunk of paid time off to recover, so I've slept a lot during the day as the symptoms defintiely seemed far worse at night. Keeping everything as moisturiser with the gels as possible has been my focus, as I've found if I got lax with it, I had bad swelling around the lady bits, that would fuse if it got too dry. Not fun, but very avoidable with the gels.

Strata was tough to apply during the worst phase as the skin was rarely dry enough to be able to apply it, but now things are starting to settle I'm applying it more again. I'm delighted to say some of my skin is now healing over - the lymph node spot at my groin was one of the worst bits, but it's a nice shade of pink now! I found I got blisters from sitting too much during weeks 5 and 6, those have been a pain to deal with, but have thankfully started to heal over now. i've spent a lot of time lying curled up sideways, throwing blankets over me like a shawl, with my butt in the air, which has been easier given it's summer, I think I might have struggled with that in the midst of winter.

Having a wheel chair memory foam cushion with a towel and  a number of old, soft cotton T-shirts is how I got round sitting through the worst of it and did the same with my bedding, to protect it from the worst of the stuff your body exudes to try and protect itself. Underwear, because of the lymph node area was a no-go, so I've spent my time in skirts going commando and very gently lowering myself on and off the memory foam cushion whereever I was sitting, even on the couch. Pooping into a sitz bath of water is still the only way I can do solid bowel movements. I don't have access to a bidae so would use the sitz bath to clean up after and shower if I felt I needed it. Lord knows you get real used to the grosser side of your body going through this! I will say the sitz bath was much more comfortable to sit on  than a regular loo seat too, to reapply gels and creams.

Sharing in case this helps someone else figure things out. The tip about cream on wet wipes was a life saver when I needed to check if everything was clean. I used - I used Pura's wet wipes as they're flushable and biodegredable, along with AproDerm Emollient cream. Now my skin is starting to heal and is much less wet all the time, I'm moisturising with Moo Goo's Natural Milk Udder Cream (not suitable if you're allergic to milk)  and using their shower wash as it has the same PH as water. I started using Moo Goo before my treatment too, to keep the skin as moisturised as possible, I've found their products great in general, if a little pricier than the usual mainstream stuff.

TLDR version of things I found really useful outside of the things given to me by the oncology team:

• Sitz bath and lots of salt -mine had the little squeezy addition to blast water, but I felt even that was too uncomfortable.
  
• Moo Goo's Natural Milk Udder Cream
• Moo Goo's Face and Body Milk Wash
• Wheel chair memory foam cushion
• Lots of old cotton tshirts for sitting commando on
• towels to put under the shirt to protect bedding and chairs
• Pura wet wipes
• Antihistamines (loratadine) for itching (didn't always help at the worst of it)

It’s good to know you’re beginning to come through the other side WhalerGirl & it’s always great when people share what’s worked for them as it gives others in a similar position ideas on what they may be able to try also so thank you for sharing. 

Nicola 

Ask your team to prescribe you instillagel it’s a lidocaine anaesthetic gel that you can mix with your flaminal gels. I mixed it 50/50. For about 10 seconds it burns like hellfire but then the relief it brings is almost magical. You can apply it as required. Have they not prescribed pregabalin? That’s a nerve pain inhibitor which affects the nerve endings in a way that other pain killers don’t. Liquid morphine works well too. Movicol helps with constipation. 

I used puppy training pads on the bed to soak up any leakages. 

Can you get a cleansing lotion called Balneol in the UK? It's so helpful, just a bit on a wet wipe- about as much as you'd put toothpaste on a brush- and it's so cool and soothing while you clean. I still have it in each bathroom.

@neilsbum Ooh, no I haven't had instillagel mentioned. I do have some generic 5% lidocaine gel, but that only works  now I can apply it for about 5 mins before the itching comes back again. I will ask my team about it, as I'm just about getting to the stage where I may not need the flamigel stuff for much longer, thankfully! Oh and puppy training pads are smart, the tshirt and towels caught pretty much most of mine but had it been any worse, I can see that working well under something comfortable.