Never the same again?

Eleni D 6 hours ago

2 replies
39 subscribers
45 views

Dear lovely community,

I have read through a lot of the messages on the forum and have come across several people saying that the body is never the same again after treatment and you get used to a 'new normal'.

My treatment was 5.5 weeks of radiotherapy and twice daily capecitabine chemotherapy tablets with one intravenous mitomycin chemotherapy on day one. I am now 6.5 weeks post treatment, and the intense pain of those first 2-3 weeks after treatment has receded and now, although it still hurts when I visit the bathroom, it is bearable. I still use my sitz bath afterwards.

Can I expect the pain to fully go or will there always be an element of pain/sting? I'm trying to work out whether I try to reintegrate myself into life and go with it or try to wait to be completely pain free.

I hope this makes sense...I know we are all different, but I feel like I am navigating a maze when I think too much about it.

Thanks,

xxx

Poppydays2 5 hours ago

Hi Eleni D,

Thank you for asking this question because I was wondering the exact same thing! I am five weeks post-treatment and still have quite a bit pain when I use the bathroom. Like with you, the intense pain of the immediate post-treatment period has mercifully waned, but I have been surprised by the persistence of the pain and am wondering if pain will always be a component of using the loo.

Look forward to hearing from other forum members who are further along in their recovery! Xx

Mrs Vanilla 25 minutes ago

Hello Eleni and Poppydays,

My experience was that going to the toilet became easier as I healed from the radiation, and I don't have any pain going at all now, but I am almost four years on. I still have some light bleeding if I have a hard poo (which I had checked and is ok, TMI sorry!) so I just try to stick to eating well, and find fruit is the thing which keeps me regular, although some people here take a stool softener or laxative, and you might find some foods irritate you more than others.

Your radiotherapy team will help you with this and any other symptoms you have, so make sure you tell them as soon as anything occurs, but to answer your question, no - hopefully going to the loo will become much less uncomfortable as time passes.

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