treatment and prognosis

Hi Dee

i have not had radiotherapy but you did ask for help and advice about side effects earlier and you were given some good answers from people on here. With a 25% chance of cure and a prognosis of 1 year without treatment your consultant seems very laid back about starting your treatment. Has he only offered you radiotherapy, if so you are only needing to think about how long a course you are going to choose, which I would have thought was his place to say

Wish you well with your treatment

I have had radiotherapy, and I would be more concerned that he has given you a few weeks to think about it. I would be knocking on his door to start treatment, and throw everything at it for a cure. If my oncologist said to me go away and think about it for a few weeks, I'd be looking for a new oncologist.  Sitting around thinking about it isn't going to make it go away, What does your husband say about it? How many weeks is it now since you were initially diagnosed? If you don't want the treatment, that is up to you, that is your right, but there is only one outcome with that. 

We all have to do things we are not happy with, or that make us uncomfortable, and yes we all get very scared. But i like my life, and i would do anything to stay as long as possible. 

That's my opinion, of course the choice is yours.

He said i need to get my strength up with my anxiety, talking again in 10 days...i agree i do need to get built up only doing 1000 steps a day after spending 6 weeks in bed doing nothing...am eating a little better  so trying to get myself fitter ,,,,how any sessions of radio did you gave and were side effects bad...i am talking to a councellor and need a little time to get myself in a better frame of mind

I had 5 sessions of intense radiotherapy. And yes I had side effects, sore throat, skin was a little burnt like sun burn. If I had to do it again I would because it shrunk my cancer by 50% 

i think he is wanting me to build myself up  as 3 days before my diagnosis my sister died but i suffer from bad anxiety as well and have done for mamy yrs

Chelle did you get any other treatment

I am now on hormone treatment, I have a sarcoma which is oestrogen dependent. Even hormone therapy comes with side effects. 

I hope the counselling will help Dee. I think you need to talk it all over with your husband as well. He must know how anxious you are. Tomorrow is a new day, first day on getting strong enough to tackle this treatment. 

Hi Dee, I had twenty sessions of external beam therapy over four weeks, I know it is very hard to beat anxiety I had it terribly for around 8 months before my diagnosis and was put on prosac then sertaline then citalopram I got terrible side effects from those, I found the best thing for me was to take a couple of 5-HTP these work in a similar way to the citalopram type of drugs but without the  side effects, they must not be taken with Citalopram types of anti anxiety anti depressive drugs, as you can get something called serotonin syndrome,  you should ask your doctor first though, 5-HTP are non prescription and can be purchased from any Holland and Barrett outlet.

Radiation sessions are painless and over in a few minutes per session, I had a little discomfort in my throat around 10 sessions in, I just had to stop drinking alcohol, I got mild radiation pnumonitis,  about six few weeks after my treatment finished, that is starting to ease off now, only a small percentage of peop!le get Radiation Pnumonitis, so does not mean you will get that, and that  usually gets better in a bit of time, my Sguamous lung tumour on my last CT scan showed it had shrunk by over 50%, I urge you to make haste, would I have Radiation therapy again, yes I certainly would, if they offered me some more I would willingly go for it.

Hi Dee

I've not long finished 33 doses of radiotherapy (along with chemo for 6.5 weeks) and I found that the side effects were not too bad at all and it has been 5 weeks since my last RT treatment.  I have got dry skin but nothing severe and moisturise daily, did have 1 day when i had what felt like indigestion, which I was warned about and they were treating a node there so was expected, i took the tablet they prescribed and not had the pain again since.  My doctor wanted me to start the chemo and RT on the same day but said it would take another month to sort, I said i would rather start the chemo earlier than that and he agreed to RT treatment with my 2nd chemo,  I found that nothing with the RT hurt but have yet to find out how successful the treatment was and mine is for procoast lung cancer so different from you.  The only other thing is the tiredness which I put some of that down to travelling 5 days a week 1.5 hours there and back for a 10 min treatment time.  But I will say, with no exception, everyone of the staff in that department made me feel welcome, calm and did everything they could to make me feel comfortable and safe.  If I had a choice I'd rather not have to need the treatment at all, but as it stands it isn't the worse thing I've ever dealt with and is quick.  Have you had a chance to talk to anyone in the RT department that could potentially be treating you as that may help?