I completed 37 days of radiotherapy at the end of February.
There were minor side effects:
Some additional fatigue, but not really a problem.
Some small amount of blood from my backside on 2 days in the penultimate week, which stopped as quickly as they started.
A period of additional trips to the toilet in during the last 3 weeks, which has now returned to normal.
If I hadn't put my back out (unrelated to the treatment in any way) about halfway through, it would have been a walk in the park.
The biggest side effect of the whole thing was an irrational urge to strangle the planner who provided the hospital with a car park about half the necessary size.
My husband recently finished 20 sessions… he’s now on 3 month injections rather than 1 monthly. He’s fine apart from hot flushes at night. He still drinks 2 litres water a day , no alcohol and is active. His PSA is now undetectable ( was 6.5)
Minimum 5 visits to the bathroom every night, with many involving a spurt, splutter and dribble. Also some discomfort when trying to go. Was given Tamsulosin which helped, and all back to normal a week after treatment ended.
Could have played golf every day, but I probably wouldn't have made it to the second tee without a visit into the bushes.
had my radiotherapy in March/ April, its now 4 weeks and few days since i completed the 20 sessions, mine is a bit more complicated than most, due to the my spinel channel nerve damage, awaiting possible surgery, due to taking a high dose of codeine and paracetamol to curb the pain, along with the radiotherapy i am only going toilet every 4 to 5 days and very painful. The last few nights am now only getting up once , compared to before 4 or 5 times. Still not got much energy and fall asleep regularly, the hot flushes I'm now taking sage leaf tablets, they help some what, mood swings still up and down. The hardest thing I found whilst having the radiotherapy was judging having a full bladder, having to travel 26.7 miles and having to use NHS transport was very hit and miss. I had my latest PSA blood test on 29th May prior to consultants appointment on 5th June. signs are looking positive i did have a reading of 21 before treatments , this one come back almost undetectable 0.01 . Good luck with your treatment and everyone else going through prostate cancer
I completed my 38 sessions on the 22nd of May and It's been ok post treatment. Few challenges but manageable
Number one enemy is "worry" or "anxiety" since I was able to have control of this, going to pee every hour or 3 to 4 times at night had reduced significantly. You have to admit and accept it's a change of lifestyle and embrace it with determination and mentality of "I will beat this Cancer"
Number two enemy is drinking less water and full bowel, before treatment I make sure I empty my bowel and get almost 375-450 ml in my bladder before treatment (confirmed by bladder scan), this is good, makes treatment effective and protect damages to bladder/bowel. While drinking lots of water may sound counterintuitive when you're constantly running for the bathroom, it actually, flushes the irritants out of the urinary tract; dehydration is often the beginning of a urinary tract infection or other bladder problem.
I Stayed away from coffee completely, I don't do alcohol from time anyway and I do lots of exercise, 1 hour walk in the morning before treatment and 30-40 mins after dinner every day for 2 months and it's now part of my daily routine.
Since I finished my treatment, I had side effect for a week, this is actually the carry over from last week of treatment to the first week of finishing, slow/delay start, start/stop half way and burning/sensational pain, this has reduced a lot I believe by keeping up with the lifestyle of walking/exercising and drinking lots of water. I take average 2.5 to 3.5 litre daily with last 500 ml around 8pm before going to bed, I only wake up twice at night to pee, 2/2.30 AM and 4/4.30 AM
I understand our body react differently but rule of thumb remain the same, Hydrate yourself very well and exercise.
I wish you all the best in your journey and successful treatment
