With the help of a wonderful nurse today, we got a face to face meeting with my oncologist. We learnt a lot & were able to ask many questions.
Something i wanted to check, i understand that radiotherapy can make the bladder harden, meaning it holds less urine requiring more frequent urination.
Does anyone who has had radiotherapy noticed this?
Hi Coojee. After my radiotherapy, I did notice I was going more often, but I was drinking loads of water. Although more often, they were normal pees and I slept through the night. Gradually got better and normal. Best wishes.
Hi Coojee. I had 2 TURBTs. The first I was in for 4 days as they had to dig deep. The follow up, only several hours. I then had 6 weeks of chemo (Gem/Cis). Tolerated this ok. Then a break for things to settle down and then MRI and CT scans. Then 6 weeks of daily radiotherapy with chemo pump on weeks 2 and 4 (5FU/MMC). Treatments take about 20 minutes, but lots of waiting around. Weekly consultations to discuss how things are going. Again, no problems or nasty side effects. After treatment finished my bowels were very erratic for a couple of months and I had bouts of fatigue which left me curled up on the couch for a couple of hours each day. This all started to fade as time went by. Initially, I had flexi checks every 3 months with annual CT scan. Then on to 6 month checks. Told I will be checked for 10 years. Now on year 8. Recently move to annually. So far no long term problems. Although still being checked, I am told if something new crops up, it will not be classed as a recurrence. It will be treated as new and back to square one. Thankfully all ok so far. Although I am good so far so far, I know others going this route and have not been as fortunate. Some have had to go on to have RC in the long run. Radiotherapy will make you infertile, but not impotent. I wish you well whichever way you go. I had a brilliant oncologist and team looking after me and still keep in touch to see how I am. Best wishes.
Hi . Thanks for asking. Op went ahead yesterday. Had to travel to Barrow, but there was a bed with my name on it waiting for me. Got there 7.30 and out mid afternoon. All seemed to go well. Bit tender today and well padded up down there, so not seen the wound yet. No follow up as dissolvable stitches. They will look at my next flexi. An upside is they gave me a trendy jock strap to keep things in place. Hope all is well with you. Best wishes.
