How Bad Should Radiation Be? It is BAD...

[DaughterOnAMission]

My dad is 73. PSA 17 down to .2 with Lupron and Zytiga. Radiation to whole pelvis, 28 sessions. 10 left @ Kaiser.

Severe diarrhea daily, cannot pee, yet pees himself... bad bloating and rumbling. Horrible bowel issues overall. Doesnt want a catheter but he should? Also has leg pain, started before radiation, but worse since radiation. Tingling and pain down from and back of legs from waist down.

How do we know what is normal and what is much too bad. They did not use spaceoar, and have not scanned him since before starting the 28 sessions.

Will any of these go away later and is he in danger? Or is the constant severe, debilitating, exhausting and painful affects normal?

3/7/19 update

Went to see a rad onc with my dad and they are "imaging" him daily before the session. The side effects are normal inflammation and diarrhea but he does need to pay attention to whether he needs a catheter to assist during this time. It might get worse....

3/21/19 update

We think the leg pain is from Zytiga. He is feeling better and just finished 28 sessions yesterday. Relieved and as a plus... his PSA is now .1 and his WBC is in normal range. Testosterone still low. Hopefully he'll get back to normal now. Just need to figure out what to do with the incessant leg pain.

[YostConner]

Make sure his medical team knows all this at today’s session. It sounds like he needs to de-bulk his diet, i.e. no fiber for a while. My gastrointestinal issues came on about 2/3 of the way through but resolved within a few weeks after radiation ended. For a while, though, BMs were painful. His medical team definitely needs to address the urinary issues. Don’t let your dad be bashful about discussing this stuff with them.

[DaughterOnAMission in reply to YostConner]

He finished! PSA is .1. Wbc dropped from 26 to 21 to now 9. Hes looking better. Zytiga is causing severe leg pain... need to figure out what to do

[pjoshea13]

My bowel issues came on fast. Recovery was very slow, but it did happen. Was told that recovery time would be similar to onset, but that was nonsense. However, things will get better.

I never experiences bladder issues, although things are not quite as they were before treatment.

-Patrick

[Tall_Allen]

It almost always returns to baseline after. He should talk to his radiation oncologist about symptomatic relief.

[Emak1]

Talk to your RO and tech team ASAP. I had an 8 wk treatment, Week 6 started experiencing rectal burning and lite bleeding, that continued through the end and got better 3-4 weeks after treatment. Stool softener helped tremendously, for me.

[DaughterOnAMission in reply to Emak1]

What caused the rectal bleeding?

[Emak1 in reply to DaughterOnAMission]

The radiation treatment. It is cumulative. But eventually cleared up