Looks like my husband will have to undergo radiotherapy as his psa level is now rising following his prostatectomy nearly 3 years ago. My question is does it always cause bladder and bowel problems ?
Salvage radiation is not ’black or white’ / side effects or not side effects.
Yes, you may have these side effects but most don’t have any side effects at all or very little side effects
Perhaps smaller ones short term during radiation and then they go away after days and weeks.
The risk is higher if you already have these types of problems and the risks are also bigger if you don’t take care of yourself with excercise and a good healthy diet (for example overweight with bad food habits, perhaps smoking or have a bad ’friendsip’ with alcohol)
So, no it will probably cause milder side effects with bladder and bowel problem during radiation and days and weeks after but the big majority will mostly always disapear
Like I said, most of us have had smaller side effects with bladder and bowel. To mitigate that they will probably give him Diet suggestion (no coffee, no sparkling drinks, not to much fiber in food and so on). Drinking lots of water helps out. Lots of walking, rest when needed and it’s really ok to do excercise if he is up to it and the body doesn’t say no
But often they are smaller issues. Yes, perhaps you need to pee more often. Yes you will experience more gas from the bowel, more stools and so on. So, it’s mostly manageble stuff happening and for almost all us the side effects will go away
Hi Whittaker , I think Ulfhbg has summed it up quite well. We are all different, that seems to be the main thing to remember but as we advance in techniques and machinery the more precise the RT seems to be. I had whole pelvis RT with 37 sessions over 6 years ago. I had very few side effects at the time but was left with some scaring (radiation proctitis) and had a little bleeding some days on passing a motion. None of this hurt and it was only detected by a camera (colonoscopy). I was given some great advice, not to strain and not to sit on the loo too long. I haven’t had a bleed for 2 months now. I am sure RT has become much more advanced in 6 years and like I said at the start, we are all different. I certainly would hesitate to have RT again. The main problem (certainly with 40 trips to the hospital including planning) was the boredom and repetition. Any questions, please ask away. David
