Salvage RT starts here

User

Posted 29 May 2024 at 19:44

Brave man having a curry the night before 😬. I did do it once in the middle of SRT but managed keep things under control. I did have a few problems trying to mange my bladder filling. Unlike you my appointment times were all over the place and I found that the amount of food in my stomach had a significant impact on how quickly my body processed the water intake. When you have to let some out the get the right fill level (or just to stop peeing yourself) it takes a monumental effort to turn the tap off.

User

Posted 29 May 2024 at 20:56

Hi Steve

Great to hear and I agree how routine is so important. Like you I had my 6th fraction this morning and so far no issues.

My routine from day 1 has worked and I'm sticking to it

Morning 8am glass of pure orange, slice of white toast and large fresh coffee.

Between 8.30am and 9.30am bowels move so happy days

Between 9am and 10am drink 600ml water

Travel to hospital to arrive 1 hour before zap time. Empty bladder which is normally bursting from 40 min drive down. Take suppository

15 mins after this, clear out bowel....normally nothing comes out as I've already moved. Empty bladder

Drive 600ml water in 5 mins and then wait 40 mins to be called. Nladder feels full again

Into room and onto table. 3 mins getting me lined up on coordinates on table. Nurses leave me

3 mins taking scans in machine and checking

Hear the clunk and the sign illuminating to say keel out radiation in progress. 1 minute for zapping and its done

Swing round gingerly and off table so I don't burst with full bladder and not wearing a pad because I think I'm a big boy now.

Casually walk out hoping nobody stops me for a chat as i have at least 350ml in my bladder

Take a pee and go Aaahh that's great

Take a few roses chocolates out of basket at reception and thank the girls

Home and ready for the next day 😌 🙌

Good luck,

Phil

User

Posted 30 May 2024 at 09:59

You get Roses chocolates!!! I just get a 'a demain' if I'm lucky LOL

I was warned off enema suppositories due to the potential for bowel irritation but I working on a theory (no, not the Brontosaurus haha) that they need an empty bowel so it doesn't push things out of position. As the treatment progresses and the stools become softer then any left in there is unlikely to misshapen the bowel and so becomes less important. At the start we may have something large sitting there causing the issues.

Yesterday I did feel that there might have been a little left in there because it came out an hour afterwards but the techs never mentioned it. The same I think goes for excess gas.

Just getting ready for the next one - 40 minute drive too.

Now, where did I put my Norwegian Blue??

User

Posted 30 May 2024 at 15:00

DAY 7

Well all plans got a bit scuppered today. Normally I aim to arrive about 10 minutes early and each time they have called me through almost immediately so I had planned my fluid intake to match. Well today they were running behind and imagine my dismay as I found two other men waiting. I had no choice but to go to the loo to let a bit go and boy, that's so much harder these days.

I got called about 20 minutes late and lying on the table I could feel the occasional leak - I didn't want to clench when the Linac was running 'just in case' so am very glad that I wear the TENA pads for the sessions.

Anyway, it all went to plan and the tech gave me the thumbs up for the session so on to the next one. Hopefully whatever caused the delay today was a one off. No side effects yet to report.

User

Posted 31 May 2024 at 12:53

DAY 8

Nothing really to report - I arrived early but they weren't busy so took me straight in. Bladder was full but not bursting and I had had a little constipation this morning but did manage to move a bit - anyway they said everything was fine so I got meself another 2 Gy. I have no idea of what a Gy actually is, but I've now got 16 of them :)

User

Posted 31 May 2024 at 21:12

Steve86,

You're a hero!

Best wishes,

JedSee.

User

Posted 01 Jun 2024 at 04:16

Originally Posted by: Online Community Member

Anyway, at 1hr15 I drink a full glass of room temperature water and then at 1hr before, I drink another half a glass. By the time I get to the RT appointment I can feel that I am ready to go but not 'bursting'

Sounds right to me. I found the recommended fluid intake of 600 ml at a specific time was likely to cause an over-full bladder just when it was least needed. Regulated water intake starting from the evening before RT and taking in a glass or so at a time, worked well. Doing exercise in the morning made it near impossible to get the levels right.

Once or twice I did some serious clenching during RT, when the wait had been a bit long. The excellent team monitoring the LINAC were very aware of what was going on and stopped the process once. That sort of delay ripples right down the line to others who are waiting and it does add to the pressure to make sure you get it right.

Day 8, nice work! RT does take it out of you a bit and you might find that recovering from the process takes longer than you'd expect. It's unlike any other recovery from a health problem in that you can't see or feel anything specific but it does leave you a bit drained.

Jules

User

Posted 01 Jun 2024 at 09:40

Thanks both

Jules, yes, I do get that feeling of being drained quite a bit - especially when my wife suggests that we do some housework :)

Maybe I am taking advantage of it an insy weensy bit ;)

User

Posted 02 Jun 2024 at 10:58

Steve, I can see you have started your SRT. Good luck with it all. You seem to be doing just fine and I hope it continues to be that way.

One day at a time...

User

Posted 02 Jun 2024 at 12:40

You’re getting there Steve, you’ll be getting to know the team by now…I hope they’re are nice as the ones that zapped me!

Derek

User

Posted 02 Jun 2024 at 14:09

They are pleasant enough and one or two of them even speak some English and the rest put up with my poor French - but they change daily. They have 4 regular Linacs and a Cyberknife machine and the Scanner so I think they all bounce from machine to machine so rarely see the same people on two consecutive days.

Mind you, from arrival to departure can't be more than 15 minutes - unfortunately I have a 45 minute drive there and the same back each day.

User

Posted 03 Jun 2024 at 15:11

DAY 9

Arrived early again but felt like my rectum might not be completely empty as I had a little constipation over the weekend and took my 08:30 Movicol and had two movements fairly quickly. Explained it to the tech (who happened to speak perfect English!) but he didn't think it would be a problem and indeed it wasn't.

After the treatment I had my obligatory interview with what I thought was an intern, but it turned out she had 7 years of study under her belt - my bad!

Anyway, everything was progressing well with no significant issues however she felt it prudent to start me on Tamsulosine, one each evening. She explained that it was more preventative to stop any small issues becoming bigger ones later on. It's what they call an alpha blocker and it fights against the contraction of the urinary tract which apparently is one of the possible side effects of the RT.

I also asked her why my testicles were shrinking (not something that you normally discuss with a 20 something year old lady) and she confirmed that it was down to the hormone therapy that was reducing testosterone and a side effect of that is smaller testes. I'm not overly concerned about it.

All good so far :)

User

Posted 05 Jun 2024 at 14:20

DAY 10
This constipation is getting me down a bit as I arrived with what I thought was again, a non-empty rectum but it seems that as long as there is no gas then it's not really a problem. The diet without fibre is the cause of the problem so will have to see how I progress.
The process was the same as usual - it's funny how you get to know exactly what sounds to expect. The procedure starts with being called through to a changing room - remove trousers and shoes.
Then called through to the machine room and lie on the machine bed with your head located in rest, legs resting over a hump and feet in stirrups. Pull your shirt up to expose your stomach and they pull your pants down slightly to expose the tattoos.
They then leave you. At this point I close my eyes and just relax.
The machine starts by rotating around you making whirring noises - this is the scanner. After a couple of minutes it stops and all goes quiet whilst the techs examine you body position and the bed then clicks and clacks a little shifting you under the beams.
Then the Linac kicks in and starts making whining sounds and this lasts for about a minute. Then a rest and then it kicks in again for another minute. As the dose is 2Gy I like to imagine that each session of the Linac is delivering 1Gy - but no idea if that's right.
As soon as it's finished, the tech comes back in, tells you it was all 'parfait' and you bid farewell until tomorrow and they get ready for the next candidate.
Start to finish is less than 10 minutes.
Let's do it all again tomorrow :)
Oh, almost forgot, no side effects to report.

Edited by member 05 Jun 2024 at 14:21 | Reason: can't spel

User

Posted 05 Jun 2024 at 19:14

That detailed description brings back memories. Exactly the same routine apart from the French language 😄. I seem to recall I was on the mini enemas for the first ten sessions which worked a treat for me. I was told that I wouldn't need any further enemas after that (which certainly turned out to be the case). I kept fibre in my diet in moderation which probably help ease things along. Why not try reintroducing a bit of fibre to see if that helps with the constipation and doesn't produce too much gas.

User

Posted 05 Jun 2024 at 19:14

Thanks Steve86,

It's great that you've had so side effects so far. Hope this continues.

Best wishes,

JedSee.

User

Posted 05 Jun 2024 at 22:03

Doing well Steve, you’ll be into a routine now. Like Chris, I had mini enemas for the first 10 days which really helped and were not nearly as traumatic as I thought….I just locked myself in one of the toilets in the waiting room until it happened. Funny how different centres have different advice, I was told to eat normally and it worked fine for me. No real side effects for me except slight urgency towards the end of the treatment.

User

Posted 06 Jun 2024 at 13:23

DAY 11

Just a piece of advice for anyone else in this unfortunate circumstance - if your appointment card says 13:10, don't turn up at 12:35 with a full bladder.

I kinda messed my timings up this morning, must have been the joy of having a nice, scheduled movement at 10:00 :) I have a 40km drive to and from the hospital and, well you know French drivers, sometimes it's 30 minutes and sometime nearly an hour - so I always leave a little early (my Dad who was a sales rep for British Gypsum taught me 'better 10 minutes early than 1 minute late' - in those days he had many a door slammed in his face when he turned up a few minutes late) - well today for some reason the roads were empty so I was there waaaay too early and I sat there waiting, trying to think of anything other than how much I wanted to pee.

At the allotted time I was called through and everything went fine until they helped me off the bed when I leaked a little.

Fortunately I always wear a TENA Men #1 pad 'just in case' and that saved the day. But lesson learned as that was most uncomfortable.

Anyway, the tech said it was all 'parfait' so onwards and upwards.

User

Posted 07 Jun 2024 at 13:22

DAY 12

Well, apart from the previous candidate having some sort of "accident" that put the changing room out of action and delayed proceedings (resulting in the agony of an overfull bladder), everything went well.

I got bored so decided to count the durations that the Linac fired - the first one was 58 seconds and the second one was 70 seconds.

Now I get a weekend off so it's (mild) curry night tonight :)

User

Posted 07 Jun 2024 at 13:54

Keep going Steve, you're doing great mate.👍

User

Posted 10 Jun 2024 at 14:32

DAY 13
Well whatever I ate on Sunday did not agree with me so a couple of loose movements this morning, drank my water and headed to the hospital. However, as soon as I arrived I was desperate to go again and so had no choice. Of course holding on to pee at the same time is impossible for me, but, imagine my surprise when I looked down and realised I had a semi erection - not a full blooded one but that was the first time that something has happened naturally without chemical assistance since my RARP (non-nerve sparing)
No idea what was going on but it certainly surprised me.
I had 15 minutes to spare so refilled my bladder with 5 cups of water and no issues reported during the treatment however I did have to find a loo 3 times on the way home LOL
I must remember to be more careful with my diet over the weekends :)

Edited by member 10 Jun 2024 at 14:33 | Reason: Not specified

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