Radiotherapy

Sick of dynamite ... that's funny.  They gave me extras to "practice" so I'll find out how quickly I go bang.

Thanks Steve

I'm good thanks Mike. I didn't mention all my appointments were after lunch all between about 2.00 and 4.00 so more opportunities for delay. 

Regards Reg  

Hi Steve

Great analogy- but don't believe that just because it's gone off , that's the end of it. I got stuck in the loo in Poole Hospital for 15 mins. Who knows what was going on, but it wasn't funny. Fortunately, I decided to use the enema at hospital, and very glad I did!

Regards

Stuart

Hi Mike, just completed my 20 sessions of radiotherapy treatment. Was a round trip of 3 1/2hrs for me although the actual time spent at the centre was just under 1 1/2hrs.

Treatment went well, got a phone call half way through from the urologist nurse to check on any side effects I was experiencing. Adviced to drink decaffeinated drinks and avoid fizzy drinks and caffinated ones as these can cause irritation

The only side effects I've had started in the last few days of treatment. Tiredness, increased frequency and urgency  in passing urine along with a burning sensation. Advised this was normal and should settle down within a couple of months 

Diagnosed stage 4 last August 2021 at 55 

Tyler,

I thought 20 was a lot!  I know you get into a rhythm going every weekday.

Before I started I could keep it in for up to 1 hour.  Once I was 3 weeks into the VMAT Radiation sessions I was struggling to keep it in for 10 minutes.  My Prostate was squeezing my bladder and my stream was down to a trickle.  I wanted to go all the time but only a trickle every time.

For the VMAT Radiation I only had to drink 2 cups of water 30 minutes before the appointment (15 minutes after the Enema).

Hope you are escaping the side effects.  It was the fatigue that got me the hardest.

Hi Steve,

 I set myself targets. First week over, then the half way mark, then down to single figures & finally last day.

It was hard to hold it, I found that if I was going to have a bad day then it would go drastically wrong. Luckily enough I never wet the bed or floor.I had good days when I drank my water and was straight in and out.

Like someone previously mentioned there was a board behind the reception area, unfortunately it wasn’t updated regularly. 
There were days when I was ready and they said unfortunately there’s a delay & also it said that there was a 30 minute delay but they had caught up but forgot to wipe the board clean.

Still the worst part over, in fact the last two nights I’ve slept through without having to get up to go to the toilet. It’s still a trickle most of the time.

 I spoke to my Oncologists secretary this morning and she said monitor it. I shall be having a telephone consultation in four weeks time to discuss how things are going, (a PSA, Testosterone & Renal blood test) the week before.

Fatigue is a problem, but I take things a day at a time and set myself achievable targets.

 Tyler  

Tyler, as you said, the worst is over.  I kept a fatigue diary on my phone, 2 times a day I would put whatever number down (1 for mild, up to 5 for unbearable).

Luckily I never got a 5 plenty of 4's, then over the weeks it died down 

It was good looking back to see how I was 

Only once did I spend longer than an hour at the RT waiting room - could take my enema and drink the water before I arrived there.  Luckily even though driving into or through a busy city never really got held up with traffic and always managed to get there on time - amazing but then it was through January 2017 so maybe not as much traffic after the rush hour and the hospital was just off the first junction into the city - which may have helped..  Once the machine had broken down so we all had to go to a different machine so that was a longer wait as obviously they slotted us in between the people booked on that machine and then it could have been two hours.  Oh, and I just remembered towards the end of the time probably the penultimate session I had trapped wind which meant they couldn't do the session at the allotted time as the wind would not let them align me correctly - Very rarely did any one spedt more than 15 or 20 mins in the RT room so they sent me back out to the waiting room where my wife and another lady there with her Dad went through their yoga moves with me - mainly downward dog to get rid of the wind and I just missed my "slot" time by about 15 mins.  As your appointments are first thing in the morning you may want to see if you can work afternoons only as quite often travel times are one of the biggest things against you.