Bowel issues during radiotherapy

I would speak to your Oncology nurse(assuming you have one, I met with her every week) to see if there is anything she can give you to help.

Steve, didn’t you say they didn’t use enemas in France? If so, they surely can’t expect you to perform miracles! I would say have a curry the night before but that’s going to give you wind. Or fruit for breakfast?

I can’t speak for the Radiographers in France but mine were simply wonderful, even one day when I just couldn’t hold on to my bladder. They counted me down and were there with a bowl as soon as the machine finished😊

for a while I was using Tena Men pads reversed to cover my bum just in case. When I had the sessions a just had to lower the front of my shorts(good idea to have elastic waist shorts or trousers) to expose the tattoos. They then  put a cover over my delicate bits to stop them zapping my Willy.🤣🤣

The whole experience was straight forward and not stressful at all. You’ll be nervous on your first session but hopefully the lovely French Radiographers will be as nice as they are in the UK.

From what I remember they used a small electric shaver on me before the tattoos. I don’t have much hair though but I would have thought they would tell you beforehand if it was required. I got one tattoo on each hip and one in the centre. They’re actually very difficult to see anyway.

When I had the CT planning scan they wanted my bowel and bladder in the same state as when they do the RT. Makes sense! So I followed exactly the same procedure. Enema, empty bowel and bladder, drink 3 cups of water then wait with legs crossed for 30mins.🤣🤣🤣 I only had to use enema for 10 sessions as after that your bowel tends to go into overdrive.

Hopefully you’ll not have to do the ‘Walk of Shame’🤣🤣🤣

I finished RT on yesterday. From 2nd half of treatment onwards I was on the toilet 4 or 5 times a day with the squits. Still am. Went to a dinner party last night and took Imodium before 2 hours before I got there.  That did the trick ! No problems when there, but back to non-normal now.

In my case things weren't bad during (salvage) RT, but I followed their advice about avoiding green veg. And taking mint tea, not my favourite but it did help. The other thing that may have helped me, the oncologists gave me some mild laxatives to take throughout RT.

Since treatment though I do sometimes get cramps from "trapped wind". My colon doesn't seem to be able to deal with farts in the nonproblematic way it used to. Happily those cramps mostly happen in the first half hour or so after getting out of bed (vertical from horizontal) so I am always close to a toilet. However a friend I made when we were co-patients (is that a word?) in the waiting room for RT has had worse ongoing problems, we are all different.