After effects of radiotherapy -advice from those who have gone through this

Hi Doggy Mu. Contact your MacMillan Nurse,He or She can help you with these issues.That,s their job,and are fabulous.Mine  has helped me a lot.Most people suffer after Having Radiotherapy.Me included,but there is a lot of help out there for you.I wish you all the best.Regards Ivy..

Hi there i am 3 weeks post treatment i had this it is so sore but to be honest it passed in about 5 days an i felt much better .i just just got in a cool bath .took pain killers .an then waited for the nxt weird thing that was going to happen to my body !.to be on the safe side contact your nurse as belzy said all there to help us .hope you feel bettwr soon i am sure you will xxxx

Hello Doggymum. I had the same not long after finishing treatment, bleeding from wee-ing and pooing, I was really frightened but no-one ever bothered to contact me, I had to call the "cancer hotline", just an answerphone then a nurse rings back and generally said something like, well it's only to be expected. My ladies parts became so swollen and painful I went to my surgery and a GP came & saw me and luckily she is a dermatologist and gave me various different creams. The Flamigel I found not at all good. I bought an over the counter  acqueous calamine cream which did help and also Vagisil which is excellent. Hope this helps.

I am sorry you are in such discomfort, you are at the sharp end of the treatment and we all empathise with your pain and discomfort.  I would ring your contact nurse, it could be that you have a urine infection.  Or it it may well be your urinary tract has also suffered burns during radiotherapy, hence the pain even though you are using warm water.  I had so much pink discharge for about six months after treatment ended that I took to wearing pantyliners but that has now passed.  But like you, I wasn't sure where it was coming from, I think everywhere in 'the triangle' suffers in radiation and it takes the body some time to recover.  For reference, a week after radiotherapy ended I spent a lot of the time in bed, I had extensive sores and fatigue that I didn't know was possible, but gradually, things got so much better.  It really is early days yet in your recovery, be kind to yourself and have as much rest as you need, you will get there!

Irene xx

Thanks everyone, I feel better knowing I’m not alone with these symptoms, I was worried the pinkish discharge could be something more serious and because the soreness doesn’t appear to be improving I was thinking is this normal. However, as you have all said it’s early days so I perhaps need to be more patient. 
Just so I have an idea of how long to expect the sores to last, how long was it before they started to clear and you were all able to walk normally (I can’t really walk anywhere at the minute because everything rubs!).

For me this is definitely the worst bit as I sailed through the majority of the radiotherapy sessions with very few side effects. Little did I know how hard it would hit me afterwards.

thankyou x

For the next few days it may get a bit worse, and then things generally improve.  But please do keep in touch with your team if you need more in the way of creams, dressings and painkillers, they are normally excellent at keeping you as pain-free as possible so don't suffer in silence.  I had really bad sores that took longer to heal but a lot of people here on the forum found life improving a couple of weeks after the end of treatment.  Recovery may seem a long way off but you are nearly there!

Irene xx

Oh, you're in the trenches! This is such a hard part of it. My symptoms weren't exactly like yours, but plenty of raw skin, bleeding, tearing, crying. It felt as if I never got any better, just stuck in that awful place, but eventually it DID get better. 

But I think you should call the nurse hotline and talk to them. I'll bet they can offer something to help.

Hang tough! It WILL get better!

Hugs

Suz