Hopefully starting RT soon

Hi Richmond, I'm surprised to hear that you are having 35 sessions of radiotherapy as most have 20 sessions of a slightly higher dose these days. Perhaps somebody wiser than me can explain this?

My husband finished his 20 sessions at the weekend. He has had no major problems. We both got tired with the travelling. I did the driving as the parking at the hospital is an absolute nightmare. I used to drop him off at the hospital and go off to Morrisons nearby and wait there until he rang me to collect him from the hospital. 

Mentally I was a wreck - unnecessarily! He hated the enemas! We feel in somewhat of a limbo now it's finished and not quite sure what to do with the extra time on on our hands. I think it's going to take us a week or two to get over the last 6 months. Also, we were advised by the consultant not to go abroad for 6-8 weeks as the side effects might still kick in.

Best of luck!

Hi worriedWife, thanks for your story. The consultant said he wanted to throw everything at it ? We were told it would be ok to plan a holiday, so we booked for late July. ( nearly 3 months after its supposed to finish) hopefully will be ok by then and think we will need a break.

Number of sessions depends on many things. The traditional dose was 37 x 2Gy = 74Gy, although the number of fractions (the more correct name for sessions) varied a bit, maybe 35-40 (tended to be higher in the US where they charge per fraction).

It turned out the prostate can handle higher doses than many other body tissues, and this brought about hypofractionation (smaller number of fractions) using a higher dose, that being 20 x 3Gy = 60Gy. The total dose is lower because the 3Gy doses are significantly more effective, and thus the total dose is lower for same treatment effect.

However, if the radiotherapy is also treating areas outside the prostate (as is more likely with a T3 diagnosis), those tissues may not be able to handle 3Gy doses, so the 37 x 2Gy regime is more appropriate. Sometimes with a T3 diagnosis, the pelvic lymph nodes will be treated too, and that can't be done at 3Gy per fraction.

Hi Andy62, that makes sense, yes my RT is treating lymph nodes as well (at least) so hence the smaller Gy dose/ more doses. 

oddly looking forward to starting RT, at least the wait will be over - fingers crossed.

Thanks for the explanation, Andy. If you are anything like us , yes , the break will be very welcome. We haven’t booked yet. We thought we would leave it a few weeks to make sure all is well. Have you got travel insurance sorted and, if so, did you get a reasonable price!

Hi WorriedWife, the holiday insurance our hospital recommended was insurancewith.com. We got a much lowere price than our usual insurance company enquiries. 

Many thanks Richmond, this is really helpful to know, We are also looking at a holiday once my husband has his last chemo session tomorrow and we have had our follow up again tomorrow morning with the Consultant Oncologist and we know the way forward.Wishing you all the best. 

Best wishes Lynne 

Hi

I found insurancewith very good and much cheaper than anything else I could find. They were the only company who drilled down to find out all about my health issues not just PC.

Regards

Stuart

Will definitely give them a try. I was advised yesterday to try Age Uk - I will try them, too!

Hi Scampidoodle, you mentioned trying to get fit again.  How long after treatment RT/CT was it before you felt up to doing some exercise? You going to start with walks?