Endometrial radiotherapy

Hi Soozie,

I had X5 sessions of radiotherapy for symptom control so my experience may be different from yours. I had awful burning and itching and thought I had thrush but was applying cream and the chemo nurses put me on anti fungal medication but they had no effect.

When I thought back I had cystitis and had awful diarrhoea, kind of explosive, about 5 times in an hour. This had effects on my skin, which was very sore and mad itchy. The itch was like an electric current. One of the lovely ladies on here, Sarah, suggested I needed cream with zinc in it, I used sudocrem. It took a while to go but the cream was very soothing. I also washed an dried the areas everytime I used the toilet, then reapplied the cream.

I don't think you can use zinc cream during treatment though, your nurses/radiographers will suggest the type if you get these symptoms. Hope this helps and all the best for the rest of your treatment.

A x

Hi SooZie

How many sessions of radiotherapy are you having? I had 32 pelvic radiotherapy treatments for my cervical cancer and side effects started in week 3. I was exhausted, and had explosive and uncontrollable diarrhoea and cystitis which are very typical with this kind of treatment.  I was given Loperamide and special cream to use. 

If you do suffer with any side effects, make sure you tell your team and they will recommend a solution for you.

Sarah xx

Hi Soozie, I had 25 sessions of radio this year starting beginning April and finishing mid May. I also had 2 brachy sessions towards the end of my radio treatment. Before my treatment started, I asked my CNS if she thought I could drive myself to my treatments. She replied that I’d probably be okay for the first 2 weeks, but probably not after that as side effects typically appear during the third week onwards. Well, I actually drive myself to every single radio appointment. My husband drove me to my brachys but that was because we knew it would be a shorter time and because he wanted to familiarise himself with the unit. I had some digestive disturbances during the third week - mainly wind/bowel spasms - but an occasional Buscopan tablet (advised by radio staff) settled it, as did tweaking my diet, eg low fibre food, no more than 2 pieces of fruit a day etc. I never had the infamous radio runs at all. I was slightly looser than normal but it wasn’t the runs. I had a slight warm feeling when I peed quite hear the start of treatment, but it went on its own. Having the brachy slightly irritated my bowel again but it all disappeared about two weeks after treatment stopped and my poos returned to how they’d been before treatment.