Treatment and Recovery Time

Hi Welly

Welcome to the forum, and I'm very sorry to hear of your recent diagnosis.

25 sessions is a lower dose however recovery time and side effects are very individual with individual accounts ranging from working right through and going back straight away to taking months to recover.

I received 28 sessions so not a direct comparison and I worked through and booked a couple of days in the week after finishing but didn’t really need them.

Hope others will follow and give you some more examples of what to expect especially those who had 25 sessions.

Good luck with the treatment when it starts.

Monty xx

Hi , and welcome to our supportive group. I’m sorry to hear your on this journey but the support and advice on here is wonderful.

I started treatment may 2025 and finished in June . 28 days in total over 5 and a half weeks.

I had one chemo injection  then the tablets .These were only taken on the days I had radiotherapy.

I had a lot of side effects. I took anti sickness occasionally. Nerve ending painkillers Vitamins calcium and vit D and Morphine at the end to help me sleep.

I could not sit down after about 4 weeks and that lasted until September time.

Going commando was a great relief .

Your radiographers or specialist nurse will give you everything you need on your first appt.

Everyone is different , and I hope you have an easy journey . Take care Anne

Hi and welcome Welly  

Bearing in mind we all do react differently, I would suggest you might want to take about a month off following your treatment, especially doing a job like teaching. It does depend a bit on what side effects you have.

You may well not start to feel anything until you are a couple of weeks in, and then you will get some lag when you have completed the treatment but the side effects continue. Are you off work at the moment?

It might be worthwhile running it past one of your medical team to see what they think, and then also having a talk to your boss - perhaps you can have some time off and then go back part-time, or have some help. It's not just the being at work that might be tricky for you, it's all the lesson preparation you have to do, when one of the commonest side effects is fatigue.

All the best with it xx

Hello Welly 

A warm welcome to the forum although I am really sorry to hear of your diagnosis.  However, all the people on here have had the same diagnosis and can share tips and how their own experience of treatment affected them.

You may find that the recovery after treatment takes a bit longer than you expect.  Fatigue is very common, the body is repairing itself after the intensive course of chemo/radiotherapy and you may also be in some discomfort in your nether regions.  And if you do have side effects, they don't come all at once, it is a very gradual process peaking a week or so after treatment ends.  Unfortunately there is no way of knowing who will have these, but the thing to remember is this treatment is the gold standard for anal cancer and has a very high success rate.  

Personally, I wouldn't commit to any timeline for return to work until you know how you are feeling.  That way the school has the opportunity to put additional measures in place to cover your absence.  You need to be very kind to yourself and fully recover.

And we will support however we can - please let us know when treatment is due to start.

Big hug

Irene xx

Thank you for the response! Im happy to hear that recovery went well for you. I meet with the radiation oncologist on Monday and hoping to get started soon to get it over with. 

Thank you Irene for the thoughtful advice! I meet with the radiation oncologist on Monday at Mayo. The team should be helpful in a recovery plan.

Hi Welly,

I had the same diagnosis. I would give yourself 3 months .

We are all different and it’s the side effects that cause the problems.

everyone is different . It’s not a quick recovery though. I’m 12 months on and still have days when I’m really tired as a T.A I know the pressures teachers work under. 
Lots of luck Anne

Hi Welly & another warm welcome to the MacMillan Online Community although I’m very sorry to learn of your recent diagnosis. 

As has already been said in the other replies you’ve had to your post, side effects of this treatment & recovery times are very individual, they vary greatly.

Personally I had 23 sessions of chemoradiotherapy & I got minimal side effects, I had little to no reaction to the chemo side of the treatment (a short mitomycin infusion on day 1 of treatment & oral capecitabine twice daily each day of treatment thereafter) the radiotherapy was short, 10 minutes or so per session, which around week 3-4 caused a skin reaction similar to sunburn & I had a bout of radiation cystitis. The 11 days following that last day of treatment were the worst for me where the area that had the radiotherapy was pretty sore & I was incredibly tired & pretty wiped out. Treatment was Monday-Friday with weekends off.

I was on sick leave from work whilst I had my treatment & returned on a phased return 5-6 weeks post treatment. I do only work part-time & I didn’t have the need to stay on the phased return for long though & was soon back to working my usual hours. 

There’s no way of telling how you’re going to react until you’re actually receiving your treatment to be perfectly honest, the fatigue was a prevalent side effect for me & even when I started back to work on the phased return I’d come home & just crash some days. 

Nicola