My partner starts radiotherapy next week for 4 weeks. How do we get through this , what do we expect? Oncologist has explained things but I want to know from your side of things .
I start on 1st June and then 23 sessions finish on 3rd July, I’ve been going to the gym quite often that really helps and keep well hydrated, maybe keep off the greens, good luck to your husband x
As others have said HT is a doddle once you get the process into your head - enema and drinking water prior to starting each session - followed by 5 minutes having a snooze.
What I will add, which has been touched on by ukpete, is ask for, and religiously follow, any diet sheet. In addition to no green vegetables, I was advised not to eat anything high fibre. So no wholemeal bread, most breakfast cereals and absolutely no alcohol. Ignoring the advice is very unpleasant.
As the others said, RT is actually nothing to worry about. Its just me there. All the intrusive uncomfortable stuff is done.
However, when i started i was feeling really well, I have all along. The hormones have made me tired and fatigued with a few hot flushes thrown in.
As RT progressed though, after a week, i just knew that each day i felt a little less well as the day before. And at the end i was very tired, and just a bit uck. That goes away after a month or so and i got back to where i was before.
The other thing that got me was the waterworks. I recommend you look for toilets (or in my case trees), that you can stop for a wee on the way home. My treatment centre was an hour away from home. I drove myself with no problems except.....in the beginning i could get there, drink the water, go wee before i left and get home. But after a couple of weeks I found I needed to stop on the way home, sometimes quite urgently. By week 3, i was going before i left hospital, then by the time i got in the carpark and out, I needed to go again. And in week 4 I would have to stop twice on the way home. Luckily its rural and winter, so dark, so it was easy. So just be ready for that, nothing worse than needing a loo and not knowing where to go. If yr in a city/town, McDonalds or a pub, Wetherspoons were my stops if needed.
ON the last RT they said i will feel worse for a few weeks before i got better, I didn't believe them but it did! After 6 weeks though I was back to normal, albeit more wee and a few bowel issues which again have cleared.
I didn't make any changes to my diet, except decaffeinated drinks. Caffeine irritates the bladder and bowels apparently but they told me to just eat sensible and no diet changes needed.
So I'm now 5 months after finishing, tired and fatigued, a few bowel issues and still weeing in the night about 4 times, but i feel fine. Booking holidays for summer, just making adjustments where needed. I've been sent to the urology department to investigate the night wee, (daytime is fine!), the bowel issues are a result of the radiotherapy beam on the bowel and nothing they can do, the tired and fatigued id the hormones so again, get used to it.
But I'm alive and happy, got nothing to be unhappy about at all!
Cute name Dancing 50, Radiotherapy like chemo therapy affects everyone in a different way, 20 sessions is the norm, some people feel tired after this it can cause diarrhoea, in my case just once out of the time I was on it. Fatigue is anther and tiredness again may not happen to your other half, generally, I found do what they say in the radiology dept and he will be fine, don’t know why but they said eating rich tea biscuits helps ? Just as a foot note. When I had mine each time I heard the machine start it’s beam I said to myself kill it kill it over and over, positive thinking.
