Radiotherapy done and dusted

Hi

well done, did you get to ring the bell at the end

stay safe

Joe

No - no bell but handshakes all round.  That felt SO damn good that I was grinning from ear to ear!  Mind you I wanted to do a lot more than just shake hands with some of those delightful nurses but they wouldn't let me!  Guess I'm too old even if I don't feel it right now!

Best wishes

Chris

Chris, Congrats on finishing your Radiation sessions.

Mine went from 5th October to 2nd November last year.  Dates I will always remember.

Did they put you on Hormones first?  Last year I had to be on the Hormones for 3 months before the Radiation treatment.

A guy I work with starts his Radiation treatment on 6th October but they didn't put him on the Hormones first.

Have you any side effects?  I had fatigue quite bad, especially after 2 weeks and my stream ended up in a trickle (something about the Prostate squeezing my bladder).

I don't regret taking the Hormones and Radiotherapy option.  In February this year I was told that I was in Biochemical Remission and as long as my PSA levels can stay under 2, I don't require any further treatment.

That's what made it all worthwhile.

Love your quote:

Souwesterly said:

The future is a long way ahead and yet is also as close as tomorrow and it might be a wonderful place or the worst place on earth - who knows.

Best of luck with your recovery.

Good morning Steve,

First off - what the hell are you doing up at 5 am?  LOL

But getting back to the story, yes, I'm on hormones and will be for the next two years apparently.  I started on them in May (daily pills) and am now on three-monthly injections.  Damn things make my arm sore for a couple of days and give me hot flushes that get my wife pointing her finger. "Now you know how I feel sometimes!" she says with relish!

Fatigue?  Hmmm, I've been totally knackered for ages now and in retrospect, that was probably a side-effect of the cancer rather than just old age.  I say that because now that I've had my radiotherapy I feel better and more energetic than I've done in several years.  In a weird way I miss it - it was a really good excuse not to get things done at home and an excellent excuse for a nice nap too!

The old dried up urine flow problem - what a pain that was.  I started to sit down to wee because it was taking that long to get going, and that was before I even started treatment. Once treatment started it remained much the same although it did get a bit better on some days.  However, now that I'm on Tamsulosin I reckon I can wee with the best of them!

One good side-effect is that my whiskers are softer than they were so I can shave much more easily!  I used to spend ages scratching away with the razor but now it's a far quicker job.  See - there's always a good side to things!

I guess that the hormone thing is something that the doctors prescribe depending on the severity of their findings.  My cancer is apparently one of the somewhat more aggressive kinds - sort of somewhere above average for potency or so they told me so the hormone thing wasn't really an option.

My 'quote' isn't a quote - it's merely words that I cobbled together on the spot.  I love the English language (which is probably why I've written books) and all its nuances and I've actually read a big Chambers dictionary from end to end just to explore odd words and to make sure that I understood what I was saying. Strange though that although I can find good words on paper, when it comes to talking I find myself going back to basics.  (That's not entirely true - once I get chattering there's no stopping me!)

On your side of the fence, my congrats to you too for getting through your radiation.  It's no fun having to head to hospital every single day for week after week but it's a great feeling when you come to your last few doses and better still when you finally walk away.  Here's hoping that neither you nor I (nor all those others out there) need to undergo any further treatment apart from regular check-ups.  As you say, having been through all the hard work - that's what makes it all worthwhile - definitely.

Best of luck to you too - and thanks for writing.

Cheers,

Chris

I'm up at 4:30 for work every week day.  It kept me going, even though the Radiation treatment.  I made it all the way through without taking time off work.

My hormones were every 6 months, last one was Christmas Eve.  Apparently, still stuck with the Hot Flushes for a while longer.

Who knows my testosterone might even start up again!  I might even get my libido back as well as some sort of function.

While I don't have any libido I don't think about it.

One thing I can do is waffle on and on and on and on...