Radiotherapy

Hi Coltrane, I am assuming it's EBRT you are having like many on here have had, The planning scan is to determine where to focus the radiotherapy, from which angle and at what dose, you will get 3 tattoo's, painless, to guide your radiographers when treatment starts. At radiography, there are little differences regarding drinking, bowels and enema's, personally i had to have a certain amount of fluid in the bladder though i know some had it with an empty bladder, bowels so long as they were not full of gas empty or full not too important and never had an enema. the actual treatment was a CT to check bladder and bowels, followed immediately by RT, maybe 5 minutes. then straight home. The radiographers are the nicest people you could wish to meet in hospital, they are kind, patient and understanding and will help you all through your treatment and answer any questions you have or if you want to see a doctor they will arrange that too. The toughest part for me was was keeping a fullish bladder for ,20 minutes, PS i had to drink 3 plastic cups full of water 15 minutes before the scan and hold it in until RT was done maybe 20 minutes in total and it was tough at first so my advice to you is to practice and find a method that works for you, best wishes.

Eddie

Hello Coltrane  eddiel is spot on in his post above.

It's important to remember you need to stay still and not move once you are on the "sunbed" so it's a good idea to cut out food and drink that could give you wind - alcohol, fizzy drinks, beans, pulses, green leaf veg etc. You may or may not receive advice on your diet depending on your hospital.

I hope all goes well for you.

Best wishes - Brian

Hi Coltrane , just to add to the other useful comments, it doesn’t hurt!  In fact you won’t know it is happening apart from the machine buzzing.  Tell the radiographers any problem as they have seen them all before and have answers to any side effects (but you might not get any).  Ask questions on this site.  Good luck, David

Hi Coltrane.

Just to add in to the information already given Macmillan have produced an information page which provides some additional information. I can only reiterate that the radiographers are brilliant at their job and extremely calm and helpful, and will explain things to you.

https://www.macmillan.org.uk/cancer-information-and-support/treatment/types-of-treatment/radiotherapy/external-beam-radiotherapy

You can tell it's Friday and almost weekend - I was going to add this link to my last post and forgot - you've just reminded me !!

https://shop.prostatecanceruk.org/our-publications/all-publications/external-beam-radiotherapy

Best wishes - Brian.

Hi, Coltrane , just one point I would add is try to get a set time , I got mine done early except one time , it helped getting into a routine with fluids , enema .

best wishes

Tony

Hi Coltrane  I have eventually managed to get a start date for my treatment and like you only received scant information. However I have downloaded a copy of a document advising on diet during radiotherapy from the NHS South West Radiotherapy folks.

I also now have a document from my local hospital that I received at my last consultation which I have scanned and can send to you if you care to give me an email address. PM message will do if you don't want to publicise it.

 Osca2023 - you might want to amend the title in your link!  David

Phew - I just read that too and it's a good job I clicked on the link to read it - I was about to remove the post!!  

Hello Osca2023 and @Coltrane  

If you are to pass on an personal e-mail address please use a private message as to put it up on a thread breaches the Community Guidelines.

Thanks for your understanding - Brian.