I just had my first session of RT this afternoon. The next one is at 8:45 tomorrow. Now I just have to hope that the weather will allow me to get home for the weekend (or at least a part of it). It's not looking very promising at the moment.
Hope everything going well for you Seamus? A bit of a problem with the weather by the sounds of things. I hope things clear up and let you get home. My cancer centre put my radiotherapy late in the afternoons on Mondays and Early on Fridays so that I could get home early at weekends and had most of the day on Monday to get back. However, if the weather is bad it doesn't really matter how long you have to get away or get back does it?
Take care and hope you can get home at the weekend.
Thanks Des. I have the same arrangement with late (4pm) appointments on the first day of the week and early (8:45am) for the rest of the week. I have spent a lot of time in Maggie's with relaxation on Tuesday, meditation and Prostate Support Group today and Tai Chi and Fun Fitness tomorrow. There's also the Calman Centre with a variety of free therapies and the Beatson Charity Centre where there's a much more restful atmosphere compared to Maggie's which is very lively and noisy.
Unfortunately part of my journey relies on a ferry so is much more weather dependent than other modes of transport.
Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift.
They are good with organising the RT around your requirements which is so helpful. Glad to hear you are making use of all the centres open to you and good that you have so many there. Maggies can be quite lively - especially on the days the prostate cancer group meet thats for sure!
Hope the weather remains fine for you while you are on RT and you can manage to get home at weekends and back for Mondays.
Got back home today just after lunch. This morning I had treatment 9 of 20 ,so almost halfway there already. Last night was the first time I had to get up to pee multiple times during the night which was a bit unsettling but not unexpected. There was a bit of leakage during the night but incontinence pants have kept it in. I haven't slept much for four nights, but staying in an hotel probably doesn't help. I'll take a dose of Valerian & Chamomile tonight and see what happens.
I also had very loose BMs early in the week but the nurse at the review clinic advised that a low fibre diet would help so I have switched to white bread instead of wholemeal, cornflakes instead of muesli and scrambled egg instead of fruit. So far that seems to be working. Unfortunately, the hotel offers very limited menu choices to resident NHS patients (of which there are quite a few each week) and choosing a low fibre evening meal option is difficult. I hope it's only for a few weeks and once the next 11 treatments are over I can gradually go back to eating real food again!
Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift.
This week wasn't too bad and got I home yesterday afternoon. I'm still having to get up for a (very slow) pee several times a night, however last night I had really bad diarrhoea all night as well. After trying to contact the hospital help line I finally managed to get through to the national help line and they were fantastic. The on-call doctor at the local hospital just phoned back and I now have some medication, so everything is a little rosier than it was a few hours ago.
Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift.
So now it's nineteen down and one to go! I'm back to the hospital for my final treatment and review clinic on Monday.
Last weekend's diarrhoea was diagnosed on Monday by the review clinic nurse as constipation! So the wrong medication had been taken. A change back to my normal fibre rich diet and Fybrogel seems to have settled it down, but I still have a problem with flatulence.
I'm still waking up several times a night with a lot of wind and feeling an urgent need to pee but not being able to. Following a visit to the nurse on Thursday, I started on 2 by 500mg Paracetamol four times a day which seems to help with the flow at night. That will get reviewed on Monday to see what is needed after the RT is finished.
Apart from that I'm feeling good and anxious to get back to rowing as soon as possible. I will need to be able to "hold my water" for at least an hour before I can do that!
Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift.
Seems you are doing well despite all the bowel and bladder problems which are to be expected. so long as you make sure you tell your radiographer or specialist nurse and they prescribe something for you then that is all good.
All the best for Monday and hope everything goes well for you from now on.
All done! Like you, I had 20 sessions and for some reason found the last week dragged on a bit. I had the expected side effects of painful urination and ejaculation and frequent BM's. The latter will probably continue as I had bowel surgery a while ago. Other plumbing is working normally after 2 or 3 weeks. I drank Ural sachets and have taken a fibre supplement for several years. Best wishes.
