HDR brachytherapy after effects

HI ,

I had low dose Brachytherapy in 2016 much the same but they leave the seeds in i had much the same apart from being sick it will improve slowly it's early days for him.

If you click on my avatar you can see my journey so far.I was PSA 2.19 gleason 3+4=7 and 5 samples out of 20 positive, six years on PSA 0.04 and signed off by Specialist .

Good luck John.

As Lyn just said, brachy is given with curative intent. Perception under the influence of general anesthesia (and I mean for many hours after) is not very clear. Hearing mention of curative intent to one person, and not to another, takes on a different meaning when your drugged up, than when your "sober". Similarly having to switch to a big catheter might sound sinister, but to the nurses involved it's just a case of needing a bigger catheter, no big deal.

I was also on that ward, and had a bad night's sleep, a gentleman moaning in pain being one of the problems. However that ward has men with many different types of cancer the man opposite me had oesophageal cancer, for him eating was agony. I don't know how anyone's going to die, but until it's my turn I don't plan on dwelling on it. 

I was sent home with a catheter in as I couldn't pee, that problem was solved a few days later, so I can't make much comment on your OH's peeing problems other than to say it will probably get better as the swelling goes down. 

You really don't need to be anticipating grief. He rides a motorbike, you ride pillion, I ride a motorbike. Every day on a motorbike is a duel with death, a few cancer cells are no match for a biker. 

He's telling you maybe see a counsellor, you're telling him maybe see a counsellor. You both know it's neither of your thing. I guess you could make a pact to both go and see a McMillan counsellor together.

Edited by member 03 Dec 2022 at 00:14  | Reason: Not specified

When I came home from HDR Brachy, my bladder capacity was about an egg-cup, so peeing very often. However, it initially doubled about every day, and was back to normal after a month or so. My flow rate recovered over the following weeks too, but not back to original level. Then at about 5 months, long after I assumed it was settled at the new norm, it increased further still, back to almost where it had started.

As has been said, brachytherapy is only ever done as a curative treatment.

The radiotherapy (brachytherapy) damages a lot of cells which the body is now working on healing - that takes some work even though not visible, and hence leaves you fatigued.

I am really glad things are getting better. My incidence of urinary retention involved just under 1 litre retained. 2 Litres is very bad.

Being generally very healthy this was one of my rare interaction with the NHS, obviously I have a lot more now. The first catheter drain bag is half a litre so at 450ml it was still filling up and another one was swapped in. I was fully drained at about 900ml. The nurse filled in a box on a form saying retention 450ml. I asked why is that not 900ml. She said "we have to put how much goes in the first bag". Now this is clearly a case of blindly following instructions without thinking what the purpose is. After that incident I realised that as a patient one has to manage one's own treatment. The staff do what they are told but they are not thinking about you.

Your OH will soon get tired of having a catheter, in reality he probably only needs it for a week. I made a post at the bottom of this thread about intermittent self catheterization https://community.prostatecanceruk.org/posts/t22995-Escaping-the-Catheter

If your OH can be free from an indwelling catheter prior to his EBRT planning scan he will be in a much better position. If it is in when he has that scan then I think it will have to remain in for the whole three weeks of EBRT even if he doesn't need it.

p.s. that wasn't water in his bladder.😂

I wouldn't be too concerned about the nighttime peeing problems. The fact he is peeing ok in the day means urinary retention is not currently an issue. If it starts getting worse, try and find out if intermittent self catheterisation is possible. He needs to be taught how to do this, so you don't want to be in A and E having this discussion, it is worth starting the conversation now (in east Manchester there is a community continence service).

The shooting pain in the penis, is not something I experienced. I am told that pain in the prostate is not felt in the prostate, but elsewhere. This is called referred pain. I don't know if this is of concern.

He is due to start EBRT soon, and you really don't want this delayed. The brachytherapy has done half the job, the ebrt needs to do the other half before the cancer recovers. EBRT may worsen the urinary problems. I think you need to speak to the Christie about whether a catheter may be necessary, whether it needs to be in at the time of the planning scan, or ideally if he can just do intermittent self catheterisation if needed during the course of EBRT.

Because it is so important that the EBRT goes smoothly and that Christmas and strikes are just around the corner you probably need to be phoning the Christie ASAP, and depending on their reply contacting your local health authority about catheterization.

I had LDR/RT 3 years ago. See my profile for more info.

I confirm Dave64's/ Lyn's comments. In my case I had a 15 min drive to the hospital for RT, and could do the whole trip too/from the hospital in 90 mins to two hrs. I was very fortunate as one guy in the waiting room had a 90 min drive each way and had to schedule his bathroom stops along the route which was very difficult during Covid. He had a bottle in the car just in case.

We had to drink 3 cups of water 30 mins beforehand which was quite a task after waiting an hr sometimes...Took advice from this board and had a change of pants/ trousers in my day bag just in case, but found out that I didn't need them.

🥴