Radiotherapy effects

Hi Wilbur , we are all different, but in my experience both HT and RT will cause fatigue.  If you can keep a level of fitness before and after treatment then that seems to mitigate the effect of both.  Having said that, listen to your body.  If you feel tired, don’t push but when you feel well, try and keep going.  You will have a great Christmas with treatment behind you.  I guess you will feel tired but everyone will understand.

Hello Wilbur,

I had this and to be honest the worst part of it was the drag to hospital every weekday for 4 weeks and parking when I arrived (although it was free). The process is pretty straighforward and I found side effects minimal.

You might get fatigue but it affects us all differently. I'm sure you'll be just fine for Christmas.

Macmillan has  guide and I've put a link to this below if you want to have a read, all the details are in there.

I wish you success, Derek.

www.macmillan.org.uk/.../radiotherapy-for-prostate-cancer

Hello Wilber (Wilbur ) 

I will throw in my contribution  -  here's a link to a thread which might help you:

 What you wish you had known before starting Radiotherapy? 

Hope all goes well and you have a great Christmas.

Best wishes - Brian.

As others have said or intimated, maintaining an healthy diet alongside a good fitness routine helps massively. I did this throughout my radiation treatment and continue to do so and I’ve had little or no side effects. 

Best wishes 

Gra

Hello Wilbur . Like the others I found my energy levels decreased, mostly noticeable towards the last few of the 20 RT sessions. I also had a bit of urgency and stinging when peeing and what I described as ‘slightly explosive No2s’ for a few days, with increased mucus and wind. Both controlled, very manageable, no incontinence and both cleared up very quickly. My treatment was pelvic and not just the prostate area, which probably didn’t help…!

I took the advice on here and went out for walks, even though I didn’t feel particularly motivated to. That helped to fight off fatigue. And I was told to listen to my body and rest more than pre-RT.

Hope this helps. Good luck with your treatment. 

Hi Wilbur 

Well, now I'll throw in my two pence worth.

I was just under 75 years of age and considered myself as nothing more than averagely fit for that age when I had 20 fractions of RT and my experience will hopefully help you look on the bright side but do remember that we are all different.

You are welcome to read my profile by clicking on my avatar above but to sum it up, I considered it to be a 'walk in the park', yes there were some physical effects mainly on bowel and bladder but I found heeding my bodies messages saved any serious accidents. Now two years on 99% of that has disappeared and life is mostly back to normal.

Return to normal from the HT is somewhat a different story but even that is almost back to normal but has taken around eighteen months to do so.

I wish you all the very best with your continuing journey and hope that Christmas is good for you.

Rod

Hello Wilbur, with a similar diagnosis and this time last year in a similar position to yourself, although initially told radiotherapy may not be an option, all the prep was done and 20 sessions took up our time in March this year. Fatigue the biggest hurdle, parking at the hospital the second, and major side effects toilet wise kicked in on week three. Peak 'bad' was two weeks after RH had finished, but told this to be expected and from then on everything improved.

Pace yourself, eat well, and combat tiredness with gentle exercise when you can, and now six months later, with a recent reassuring 0.1 psa we are packing for a few days away. Do hope it all goes well. Best wishes to you.

I experienced bowel problems after only 4 or 5 days of radiotherapy. I had this for several months during which time i couldn’t go out but it eventually settled down. That was May 2024. I still have to be careful. Recently i’ve started to get bladder problems (late  side effect). I do get fatigue but i put that down to the hormone therapy.  I also had weight gain, muscle loss, hot flushes, shrinkage of sex organs, ED etc.  Not a lot of fun.