Chemo tablets and radiotherapy

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Has anyone on her had the above treatment my son has to have 5 weeks. He has to go every week day.

  • I had the same regimen. I went for 30 treatments (6 weeks) but I think the standard treatment range is around 25 to 30 so your son"s treatment plan sounds typical to me. 

    Best Wishes to you both.

  • Yes, it is quite impressive. It probably takes more time to align your body in the right position than the treatment itself. They like to be pinpoint accurate. Check with the oncologist to see if he should take his tablets on weekend days as well. I had to and was told that some people forget to take them.

  • Will do good advice thank you.. did you have side effects?

  • Nothing from chemo (but there might have been loss of taste and smell). Radiotherapy caused minor soreness to the skin in the area of irradiation- a  bit like sunburn - but E45 cream resolves that. No complaints.

  • Thanks for this

  • I've just completed my 25 days of radiotherapy and chemo (capecitabine). This is what I've found, hopefully it might help your son.

    I had really bad nausea but they changed the nausea tablets and that made a big difference. I still found smells were enhanced and some I couldn't stand. I got some ginger tea, ginger ale and ginger nut biscuits in ready. I couldn't stand the smell of the ginger tea, but then I couldn't drink any tea at all. But the ginger ale was wonderful, tasted like the best thing ever, and I still carry some ginger nut biscuits around with me.

    I'd decided to go alcohol free as my liver was going to do some heavy work with the chemo tabs, but I couldn't stand the smell of wine anyway. I tried some alcohol free wines and they were awful, but possibly because of my nausea. However Guinness zero is really lovely as are some of the alcohol free lagers.

    Travelling every day and finding a parking spot for the radiotherapy are the worst bit of the whole thing. As others have said the session is really quick and it took more time to position you.

    Make sure your son moisturises, hands, feet, and all around the pelvis area. They gave me some prescription cream as they said I was guaranteed to get skin irritation due to where they were zapping. 

    I did get a lot of diarrhoea, about every three days, and I had pills for that too. Ask for an urgency card, this is MacMillan card which explains that you need a toilet urgently, most places are very helpful and get you to a staff toilet.

    Best wishes to your son.

  • After reading Joan90's post it reminded me of the risk of diarrhoea. At the initial meeting with the oncologist he said that I wouldn't make the daily 40+ miles round trip to the cancer centre as the radiotherapy would cause me to rush to the lavatory. When I put it to him that I had been suffering from frequent diarrhoea for a year he more or less said "you ain't seen nothin' yet". He suggested that I have a temporary ileostomy for convenience, so the colorectal surgeon performed an operation within a couple of weeks, Consequently I didn't suffer from diarrhoea. Three years later I still don't (because I kept the ileostomy as it works so well!!). That might sound drastic but I believe it was sound advice.

  • Thanks for the advice

  • Could you drive after the treatment it's an hour's trip each way for him

  • Yes, that wasn't a problem. Some people were working during their treatment, and travelling to and from work.