Any advice please

Hello Trv,

Sounds like you have had a really rough time. I think there is definitely a lag in this treatment, and we carry on feeling the effects after it is over, and to have finished nine weeks ago you are bound to still be feeling the effects - please don't think everyone else is bouncing around happily, loads of us take a long time to even begin to feel we are healing and I'm sure others will comment.

If your GP feels anti depressants would help, I would go with it. Feeling emotionally able to cope will help you deal with the physical things, and allow you to look more positively to the future.

You are not being a wuss, definitely not; you have had a serious illness which is treatable, although the treatment is harsh. You WILL feel better but it can be a long process and you are making progress.

The chemo & radiotherapy is very effective so hopefully, like may others here you will have a positive outcome. You are bound to still be feeling some pain and discomfort so stay in touch with your GP and the team where you were treated, they have the specialist expertise to help.

I suppose the Mac nurse can't give you any false reassurances but you will feel better reading through this forum at other people's positive stories and how the treatment is extremely effective. 

Many of us have problems 'down below' to different extents and I get the feeling you are a guy (sorry if wrong) but I found it helpful to wee into cool water when I had pain. You can buy a bowl, called a sitz bath, that fits over the toilet seat and you fill with water, then you can just tip it down and flush as usual when you've finished. I found it made it a bit easier, not sure if it would help you.

Please don't worry about taking time to heal. Get all the help you can.

Hi

thankyou Mrs vanilla for your advice and kind words . It has helped me . I have a sitz bath , I used to sooth my burns etc during treatment but . I may give it another go and see if helps again.  ( I'm a gal by way , not that I've felt very ladylike for a while!  lol) 

I will continue to take things one day at a time and take comfort from reading all the success stories on here . 

Thanks again and take care 

Try x

Oh sorry Trv - it was the fact you referred to radiation urethritis. I kind of thought that sounded like a 'man' thing as I had not heard the term before, but of course we all have urethras! My apologies. 

Let us know how you get on, and try to just go with it. I know that is easy to say but there is something about acknowledging you have had a bit of a beating and allowing yourself to accept that it will take time to heal. Be gentle with your body and you will get there.

All the best

Hi Trv, you do seem to have gone through the wars somewhat. No wonder you are feeling the way you do. The radiation urethritis I think is hard to treat and I had this in the early weeks of treatment and was told to drink like a fish! I would drink well diluted cranberry and also drank ginger beer. Lots of drink will make you want to go to the loo but you are diluting your urine. I am a year post treatment and still use my sitz bath sometimes first thing in the morning when I know I am going to be a bit constipated due to eating not the right foods the day before. In my experience the bowels did take at least six months to ease and now I can tolerate the morning one as the skin is not so tender but I do have anal stenosis (narrowing of the bowel). I found the laxatives fine whilst on morphine but once I was off morphine I had to stop the laxatives as they made me loose. It might be worth looking at your diet and finding out what foods help give you a good bowel movement. If I eat beans on toast on whole meal bread I feel great as they make stool soft and give you bulk. If I eat rubbish like biscuits or cake I end up with malteser pooh. Cheese gives me mucus jelly.  I wonder if you should talk to your team about keeping a regular dosage of pain relief in your body for now to help you through this a bit longer rather than just before the pain. Your first scan after 3 months isn’t that accurate as there will still be scarring and the treatment is still working so don’t worry about that. I think six months after treatment gives them a better picture of results. Your tiredness is normal and will take time and you are very early after treatment. I know some on here have benefitted from taking a course of antidepressants and it’s not forever. Your recovery is important and it’s not only physical but mental chaos on us. If you read on here you will find some people recover earlier but that doesn’t mean you won’t get better as time goes on. It took me longer and I am retired so didn’t have to go back to work but I was very active with ramblers which I have not quite managed to get back into due to being away from the toilets all day! I go swimming, tia chi, walking and just started doing weights very gently. What ever happens in the future we can’t control and just take each day as it comes. I have my moments wondering if it will come back somewhere else but we are under the NHS radar and any problems we have we should share with our doctors. I hope you start to feel on the way to recovery soon. Julie

Thankyou again .. take care  

Trv x

Hi Julie 

Thankyou too for all your advice and kind words, I will try and take it all on board . It's reassuring to hear that what I'm going through isn't odd and that there is light at the end of the tunnel so to speak .. x

Please take care .

Trv