This sounds like a moan - it absolutely isn't but I was discussing side effects of my 20 session radiotherapy treatment with my onco this morning at the 6 month check. (things going very well on this front - PSA where it should be at 0.2).
They ask you to do a bit of a quality of life questionnaire and I hadn't really thought about this before but I have had to make changes in 2 main areas of my leisure time.
1) I am a member of a small walking group - mainly ex colleagues. I haven't been on a walk for 6 months and I am not sure I can resume these. In short, I need a full bowel movement before I can venture anywhere without a loo. This morning was a case in point. I parked about 10 minutes away from the hospital. The walk from my car to the entrance was just enough to shake things up and I was desperate. Being a hospital - no shortage of loos - no problem but I have noticed that I often have a small movement first thing followed by the main event. After that I am fine but this does mean that if I venture out of the house before the main event I absolutely have to be within striking distance of the loo. In short, my days with the walking group are effectively over.
2) Holiday choices. Neither my wife and I are great sunbathers although we do like the sun. We tend to have a week on a favourite island - Madeira and then another week doing a tour of some sort to somewhere we haven't been with the likes of Riviera Travel or Jules Verne. These holidays often involve early coach trips and then some walking. No loo, no can do so this type of holiday is effectively knocked on the head.
The onco explained that, as we all know, the radiotherapy inflames the bowel but, after this dies down, the wall of the rectum becomes less elastic and can't hold as much - hence the urgency.
These minor changes to my routine are a small price to pay for keeping the dreaded Pca at bay and, these 2 issues apart, it is almost as if nothing has happened with the urinary situation as good as it can be and the tiredness becoming less and less of an issue.
But I'm interested if others have had to change routines after RT and what you have done to work around them.