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Bladder symptoms after Salvage radiotherapy, what is normal

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User
Posted 31 Aug 2023 at 18:32

I completed 37 sessions of salvage radiation on June 30th 2023 and 6 months of hormone treatment started in April. I had a robotic prostatectomy September 2022. I am continent of urine but notice continued  bladder irritation. I het up every 2-3 hours to pee. There is often a discomfort and a feeling of needing to pee. There is little to no burning on urination. These symptoms are episodic and fluctuate every few days. There is no blood in my urine. The bowels are doing OK.


Is this a normal recovery from salvage radiation?. When I asked my radiation oncologist waffled on about a bad outcome case he had had in the past, not very reassuring.


I drink coffee 2 mugs a day and alcohol sparingly.


I would like to hear of others experiences with the recovery.

User
Posted 01 Sep 2023 at 22:38
It's only till it settles. Start reintroducing the irritants slowly so you can identify what if anything sets it off.
User
Posted 03 Sep 2023 at 15:10
Nature is miraculous. If nature does recover after collateral damage to healthy organs by X-ray, have to wonder if recovery will ever be perfect and miraculous again, and how long in terms of years and decades this new situation will prevail. A choice between the devil and thedeep blue sea.
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User
Posted 01 Sep 2023 at 06:46
8 years after RP to much coffee combined with to little water still causes an irritation in my bladder, best described as feeling like I need a wee when I don't.

If you have just finished RT I can imagine your bladder is going to be rather sensitive. Try cutting out all caffeine and alcohol for a couple of days.

If it persists don't let the consultant fob you off.
User
Posted 01 Sep 2023 at 07:57

Steve, It could be a mild form of radiation cystitis. If you do start passing blood,clots and debris, you need to see someone who understands radiation damage. Did you manage to hold your water during SRT. There are bladder infusions that can help calm the bladder. 


Thanks Chris 

User
Posted 01 Sep 2023 at 21:17

A prescription of Solifenacin may help with the urgency symptoms. It worked for me.

User
Posted 01 Sep 2023 at 21:26

Thanks to everyone for the input. I had been led to believe that I would be free of bladder symptoms 2 weeks after the SRT but that is not the case. I was on an antimuscarinic called Detrol during the radiation to decrease bladder urgency symptoms. I stopped it a while ago after meeting with my radiation oncologist.


I will reduce the coffee and restart the Detrol. Hopefully things will settle and I won't develop a more chronic cystitis.


Shame about the coffee and beer though. At this stage of my treatment, there is not much else to give up.


Thanks all.

User
Posted 01 Sep 2023 at 22:38
It's only till it settles. Start reintroducing the irritants slowly so you can identify what if anything sets it off.
User
Posted 03 Sep 2023 at 15:10
Nature is miraculous. If nature does recover after collateral damage to healthy organs by X-ray, have to wonder if recovery will ever be perfect and miraculous again, and how long in terms of years and decades this new situation will prevail. A choice between the devil and thedeep blue sea.
User
Posted 04 Sep 2023 at 05:54

I don't think that you ever have complete information when making the medical choices that prostate cancer has forced on me this last year. I am hoping that I continue to recover from my radiation and that the treatment prevents my cancer from spreading further. "Hope is the best medicine" and my doctors advice for me to go and live life is my plan. How it all ends up I do not know.


Thankyou for the continued support and answers to my questions over the last year.

 
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