Radical Radiotherapy, my journey continues.

Day Eleven (Tuesday):

8.15am appointment, bit of a rush to get ready after a very poor night's sleep. I made sure I drank some water at home so I wasn't dehydrated before I got to the hospital (found out that if I didn't drink enough when I got up,the 500ml of water you drink before your RT session doesn't go to the bladder, it rehydrates the body instead. The result is you don't fill your bladder and they not be able to do your RT until you drink more water, so be warned if you are about to start RT in the future).

Still feeling a bit low but following my session and a mad dash to the loo (I was really bursting today) I had my weekly review where I had a chance to air what I was feeling. I mentioned that my urine flow seems to be slowing down again (probably why I was so desperate to go for a pee because I had problems emptying my bladder on arrival at the hospital) and it was suggested that might be because I was very stressed, and that might be causing a more restricted flow. I said how unhappy I was about the appointment situation (mentioned in posts in my previous "RT Starts Today" thread). She said in reply that it wouldn't be a problem again and they would try andarrange my appointments to avoid my work commitments.The problem occurred because she was off on Friday.Only another week to go after this one anyway so it probably won't occur again. A few other things were mentioned about why I was feeling so low and I realised that very minor things can triggerthese moods. I felt much better after the review and felt the RT team were on my side again. It helps to talk and get things off your chest.

On the way home, I decided that I would give the Sertraline my GP gave me a go, to see if they would help my moods. I have to say I have felt better since I took a tablet. I'll see how it goes anyway.

Onward to Day Twelve.

Steve

Edited by member 31 Oct 2014 at 19:55  | Reason: Not specified

Glad you got your 12th session out of the way.
The pain in your hip....well I will say what people keep telling me....you are getting older mate and the aches and twinges are part of the deal.

Problem is we notice these things more and they are magnified. We forget we can suffer from other ailments apart from PCA.

Take care

Bri

Hi Steve

Sorry to hear that you have been feeling a bit 'down' for a while. I have not responded as we have been away for half term (hubbies 90 year old father in hospital after falling ill when holidaying with us last month- but that is another stressful story!). We really do understand how you feel and regrettably I think that it is normal to have some 'bad' days when you are struck by this disease.

I did notice some good information today on the news that there have been some great advances in PCa treatment (more than any other Ca)and that anyone diagnosed in 2013 has a 88 percent chance of going on for at least 5 years. I wish that I could post the article on line but I am not that good on the site! Maybe someone else will pick it up I saw it on the BBC news app health section.

We tend to keep all articles for future reference on the disease and snippets of positive news like this do keep us going and give us a slight lift on the bad days.

I hope that your happy pills kick in a bit (please can I have some!!) ha!

Look after yourself and good luck with the next week of treatments.

Oh yes - and reference the hip aches and pains, I must admit that we tend to worry about all niggling pains too. My OH has had a lot of shoulder pain in the last 6 months that turned out to be arthritis after a few weeks of worrying tests. Hope this works out to be similar for yourself and put your wifes (and your) minds at rest.

Alison

Edited by member 30 Oct 2014 at 20:24  | Reason: Not specified

Day Thirteen (Thursday):

11.20am appointment. Dashed from an early morning job to arrive just in time to empty my bladder and drink my water.  As soon as I'd finished it, a notice was put out up to say there was a 30 minute delay on LA4 (my machine).  Hoped my bladder would hold out.  Then ten minutes before I would have been due to have my treatment, someone came out to ask if I was ok to go ahead at the original time. Five minutes later they came to see me again to ask if I was ok to wait another 45 minutes.  I said I thought I could make it (fingers crossed, and legs!) and so at midday I had my treatment on LA5, the different machine I'd been transferred to yesterday.  Went well.

I've come to the conclusion, having this treatment is not quite as straight forward as it states in the info they give you.  It's a real balancing act getting your bladder right.

Anyway, found out that the consultant oncologist is on holiday this week so it looks like it will be next week before I know anymore about my hip.

Onward to Day Fourteen.

Steve 

Edited by member 31 Oct 2014 at 06:56  | Reason: Not specified

Day Fourteen (Friday)

8.40am appointment.  An interesting day. 

Arrived early at 7.35am, partly because I woke up at 4am (usual reason, to have a pee) and couldn't get to sleep again.  I kept thinking about my daughter who was due at the hospital at 7.30am to be induced to give birth to our first grandchild.  I just hope everything goes well for her. 

I drank my water at 8am and was called through to get changed, at 8.40am, pretty much on time.  I lay on the bed, exposing my tattoos so they could position me correctly (which they do by grabbing your naked hips and moving you from side to side until you're just in the right position).  I don't mind the female radiographers doing this but it still feels slightly uncomfortable when the male radiographers hold you by the naked hips!  Today it was a guy on one side and a very attractive girl on the other side.  All set up, they left the room saying that today would be a quick session, little did they know how quick.  The machine moved around me, delivering the blasts of radiation from the first two positions, started to move to the third position when suddenly the head shuddered to a stop.  I BROKE THE MACHINE ! After a couple of minutes, the staff came in and tried everything to try and get the machine working again, but finally said they'd have to call the engineer.  They covered me over with the gown and a few minutes later the engineer arrived and started pulling panels off to see what had gone wrong.  All the time this was happening I was just laying there becoming increasingly desperate to go to the loo.  The engineer decided it would take a while to fix so the bed was lowered and I returned to the waiting room, via the loo, no jeans, still with my gown around me and feeling rather out of place as everyone else was dressed in their everyday clothes.  As soon as I walked in, they all looked at me and asked me if it was me who'd broken the machine.  I said it was a battle between me and the machine and I'd won!

The positive thing was that it caused a few laughs in the waiting room and everyone started talking more. I've made a few friends during my time there but sometimes you don't see them because of different appointment times.  It has been more chatty than my first few visits.

Anyway, as I'd emptied my bladder, I had to drink 500ml of water to start the process again.  45 minutes later, I was called through to the LA4 machine again, the engineer had managed to fix it and I was going to be the one to test it.  I promised the people in the waiting room that I wouldn't bust it this time and completed my treatment. Well, left the hospital after over two and a half hours there, good job I didn't have anything urgent to go to.

Onward to my final week.  Will be sad when the experience is over.

Steve

PS: No news of the baby yet.  Will post as soon as there's any news.

Edited by member 31 Oct 2014 at 21:58  | Reason: Not specified

Hi Steve - Nearly there keep going!  When I had my treatment at North Middx Hospital the machines broke down from time to time so it isn't unusual, I guess they're in action so often with one person after another having treatment it doesn't help.  During my last week of treatment they did all they could to complete it without breaks so I hope they do the same for you.  Like you I felt sad when it was over - I missed the people I met everyday and there was the emotional aspect with the relief on completing 37 sessions.

All the best, Arthur

Day Fifteen (Monday):

8.55am appointment:  A very special day!

Had a sleepless night worrying about my eldest daughter, who had been in labour since 3.30pm on Sunday.  Finally got to sleep and woken by a phone call at 6.30am with the news that I was a grandfather for the first time (see my other post "Happy Event, A New Arrival").  Excited, I headed for the hospital to be greeted by the early morning regulars asking if it had arrived yet.  I passed on the good news and by the time I had my treatment (on time) the radiographers were congratulating me having already heard the news from member of staff I'd meet on the way in.  I think I was on such a high that I hardly noticed I was having the treatment. 

The session passed uneventfully and I was on the way home in less than an hour.  I was rather frustrated that I couldn't visit my daughter and grandson in the maternity unit while I was there, I had to wait until 3 in the afternoon before I took my wife and youngest daughter to see them both.  He was worth waiting for and it was a pleasure to spend a couple of hours with him. 

Definately a wonderful moment after all the awful things that have happened recently.

Onward to Day Sixteen.

Steve

Edited by member 06 Nov 2014 at 09:54  | Reason: Not specified

Your ordeal with a full bladder did make me smile Steve, why oh why do so many hospital procedures require us to have a full bladder. When I was 38 weeks pregnant with my youngest son (now 10) I had to have a scan. This also requires a full bladder and being clever I thought I would drink the water before leaving home. I had calculated the 6 min walk to the hospital and then the 3 min's to the dept. What I hadn't calculated was A) it was a very cold day and B) said dept had been relocated to a porter cabin at the other side of the Hospital only accessible through the car park.

Thankfully I was wearing a long Maxi coat but I bear the humiliating scar to this day of being heavily pregnant and clutching the hand of my 5 year old son as this very large puddle got bigger and bigger in the middle of Southend Hospital car park. http://community.prostatecanceruk.org/editors/tiny_mce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif

Hope day 17 goes smoothly

BFN

Julie

Day Eighteen (Thursday):

2.30pm appointment.

Arrived about 1.30pm, wanted to see if I could have a quick meeting with the senior radiographer about my side effects.  I had my treatment a little late, there was a twenty minute delay when I arrived. It went ok but again I was a bit desperate to empty my bladder again.  I think that's probably because I'm not emptying my bladder fully when I arrive because my flow is becoming very restricted again.

I had to wait a while to see the person I wanted to see but it was probably my last chance to do this. 

I mentioned about my restricted pee flow but was told that this would improve over the next few weeks.  I also mentioned the fact that when I'm straining to have a pee I have an overwelming urge to have a bowel motion too.  Also, I'm having a problem of a discharge of mucus and blood from my rear end too which I can't seem to control, mainly when passing wind which has increased in the last week or so.  All that was really said was that these are fairly common side effects and they would get better in the weeks following RT.  I think I will have to live with the problems for a while, it will be all worth while if it results in a cure.

Onward to Day Nineteen, my final day.

Steve

Day Nineteen (Friday):

9.25am appointment. My final Day.

Arrived about 8.15am, partly to make sure I got a space in the car park and also to have a few moments to fill in some survey forms I'd been given about updated patient info leaflets they intend releasing soon.

It's strange but I felt quite sad that this was my last session.  Even though it has only been four weeks, it has become a routine part of my day.  At the same time, it was nice to think that it would no longer matter how much I drunk and I could go for a pee when I wanted.  Having an empty bowel has been a constant challenge too, especially with appointments at different times of the day.

Last night before going to sleep, I suddenly thought that, at this late stage of the treatment, I could be cancer free.  This thought was soon followed by a feeling that this last treatment today was possibly be my last chance of a cure.  Made me quite nervous about this final day.

I drank my water, for the last time from the Coke bottle I've used throughout my RT, given to me by wife.  I'd asked her to get a Coke bottle with my name on it.  She came home with a bottle with "Stephanie" on it!  She thought this was a laugh because when I first went on hormone treatment my wife had nicknamed me "Stephanie" because of the effects of the HT.  She did claim she couldn't find a "Steve" one.  I decided to use it anyway because I thought it was funny too.

I was called in for my treatment, everyone commented on it being my last day, and went through the usual routine.  When the machine delivered it's last burst of radiation, my feelings were "Well that's it, I hope it's done it's job".  It's a similar feeling to the one you got when you finished an exam paper and just hoped that you'd answered everything correctly only this time it seemed more important because it was my life at stake.

Everyone wished me luck for the future and I handed them a thank you card and a tin of "Heroes".  I thought, at the moment they are my heroes.  I said my thanks and made my dash for the loo.

I left the hospital, thankful for being fortunate enought to have the chance of a cure.  Just hope it works.

Steve

Edited by member 08 Nov 2014 at 12:01  | Reason: Not specified

Well done Steve, another milestone passed.
I know how you felt, I too felt I was leaving the party early on my last day of RT. It's a bit weird.
I also did the self realisation that you had just completed the only chance of a cure.
That fact did lay a bit heavy for a while, but you do get to give that virtual shrug and get on with living.

I'll buy you a pint at the flyer so we can commiserate with each other.

All the best

Kevin