What to expect?

Hello Jen (Jen8967) 

I did try and find your earlier post but couldn't - was it under a different user name? 

Anyway dad's PSA looks good so that's great. Radiotherapy is just like a quick go on a sunbed - its the travelling parking and waiting that take up the time.

As dad needs to lay still on the sunbed it's best not to eat and drink anything that can cause "wind" coffee, fizzy drinks, beans pulses and green leaf vegetables etc - and he should be fine.

One of the side effects can be an increased "flow" and the need to visit the toilet - if dad has a long journey to hospital take a note of places with a toilet - Costa, MacDonalds etc - if travelling through the countryside lay-bys.

The only side effect I had was the increased frequency but if dad notices any changes during radiotherapy he needs to tell his team - the frequency of the visits will give him fatigue.

Here's a link to our guide:

Radiotherapy for Prostate Cancer,

I hope this helps and he sails through his treatment.

Best wishes - Brian.

Hi Jen

I did find Radiotherapy a bit of a doddle, it is an easy treatment.

The only issues I had 2 weeks into treatment and lasted for about 2 weeks after was constipation, meds did help to a limited extent but not a massive issue anyway. Also possible urinary issue but again will go away a couple of weeks after treatment is over

Best wishes 

Steve 

very similar to my experience,  hardest thing I found was timing the full bladder as I live 27 miles to my treatment centre and having to use NHS transport, very good but never knowing time of picking me up made it hit and miss, luckily Worcester was very good with allowing me time to top the water works up.

Radiotherapy was fine , one or two side effects,  becoming painful to pass urine,  but consultant prescribed some meds which helped no end and very constipated,  doesn't help with already having to take codeine and paracetamol strongest dose they give due to my spinel stenosis channel nerve damage, it can be upto 5 or 7 days between going. 

6 weeks on from completion of radiotherapy treatment,  so happy I'm not having to visit toilet as many times during night,  urgency very slowly improving,  still get tiered quickly and very little energy. 

Having just had my latest PSA check followed by seeing my consultant with fantastic news, from a start of PSA 21 , now 0.01 and no longer require the injections and will only be having PSA  check every 6 months for 3 years followed by 2 years once a year , only time will tell if completely cured,.

This was all discovered by pure chance, can't thank my doctor or the following treatment and care that's been given by every one concerned with my journey. 

Hi Jen8967 , the key to RT is having your prostate ready for treatment.  Generally as Brian mentioned, gas is bad news so try and have a diet without gas inducing results.  Next is how the bladder needs to be and that depends on the technique the radiologist is using.  Most require a full bladder but some prefer empty so just take note of what the team advise.  The RT itself is painless and you actually don’t know when it is happening.  
Any side effects should be reported to the team asap (they have seen it all before) and they can often suggest ways to help.  I don’t know how many sessions your dad is having but possibly 20-37 and the main problem is boredom, travel and parking.

RT tends to continue working for a considerable time afterwards and fatigue can increase even once the treatment has finished.  Hope this helps, but any questions, just ask.  David

PSA levels can vary in the short term for various reasons. Mine was 12 when diagnosed, but went down to 9.5 at the next test 3 months later. I thought this may not be as bad as first expected, but 3 months later it was 13.

I had 20 RT sessions in March, and the treatment itself is nothing to worry about. Biggest side effect for me was constant visits to the bathroom at night, with some discomfort as I was trying to go. It eased off as soon as treatment finished.

I had 3 main side effects from my RT, which ended 4 months ago: 

1. Some increase in fatigue levels, quickly controlled. 
2. Improvement in nighttime visits to the loo, reducing from about 4 times at night to a maximum of 2 within 2 weeks of completing the treatment. 
3. Ridiculous amounts of stress trying to find a parking place, ending up in me engaging family members as chauffeurs after the first 2 weeks. 

It was an easy experience overall. 

10 out of 10 to the radiotherapy team organising  it. They were great throughout, and even the receptionist was wonderful.

Good news about the PSA

Hi Jen8967,

Great news about the latest PSA result showing that the HT has been doing it's job prior to starting RT.

I had exactly the same PSA pf 7.6 & Gleason 4 + 3 = 7 as your dad & found that even though the sessions varied from early morning, to late afternoon I quickly got into a routine of the Mon - Fri RT treatment.  

As far as side effects, it's important to let the radiographers know of any that occur so they can support your father.  In my case, after about 2 weeks I started getting diarrhoea & they suggested taking Immodium if necessary & one tablet seemed to do the trick.  I kept up my normal busy routine during treatment & put this down to the fact that I didn't seem to suffer much with fatigue. 

The RT treatment is painless & each session is over quite quickly.  I found the most stressful part was the worry about finding a car parking spot (why do hospitals always have too few spaces available?) so always made sure I was there at least an hour beforehand.  As Millibob has mentioned, there may be a need for more frequent loo visits due to the volume of water being drunk, so as well as searching out possible places to stop off on the way home I also carried a screw top plastic 5 litre container in the car just as an emergency back up.  

Best Wishes

Brian

hi Jen.

The RT your dad will gets will be tailored to his cancer (the RT department will do a treatment plan based on his scans and so on). 

What will help the RT being most effective is to have his body in the same state for each treatment session; that means empty bowels and full bladder. The bladder is not "anchored" to anything so this helps it be in the same place (and thus also the prostate) for each session. Empty bowels may be achieved with mini-enemas (I hated those by the end of RT ... I had a very sore bottom). Full bladder is easy: empty  the bladder and then just drink the specified amount shortly before RT

The side effects that I had may be quite different to his.  I had two weeks feeling fine and then tiredness hit. I was working full-time and doing RT at the end of the day and have advanced cancer (Grade 4) so these may have been factors. I was very tired. If your dad can have someone to drive him there and do as much as possible for him generally then that'll help 

Longer term there was collateral damage for me to other bits of the body (e.g. bowels) and these have been on and off very painful but got better over time. But that's me and his experience may be better.

What is great is that RT is effective. It's over 6 years now since I had it and despite the severity of my cancer I'm pretty good.  And that applies to lots of people.

Good luck!