Hi All,
My father has just completed two weeks of radiation and I thought he was handling it very well but today seemed to be a really bad day. It has me a bit shaken up as it seemed to have come out of no where. Wondering if these symptoms are normal and how much worse we can expect this to get. Along with any suggestions to ease symptoms. Not often you see your father in tears so just seeing what I can do ..
1. Fatigue has been getting worse and worse but this we expected
2. He’s had some seriously intense painful abdominal pain I guess ? The way he explains it is that it feels like something internally is TEARING apart. Not sure if that is the prostate he is feeling or what.. but curious what this is and if this is normal. He has this pain initially before radiation treatment .. once he got the first firmagon shot. So this is possibly a result of hormones ?
3. He’s having tingles in his arms and legs ? He says he feels so week even for walking although he’s been going up and down stairs , shovelling snow etc ..
4. Dizzy and Nauseous? I’m concerned about this too
5. Something I’ve noticed rather than him telling me is random dark red patches of skin on his arms? He could have it other places too but I visually can only see his arms. Weird since radiation isn’t hitting his arms
6. I guess painful urination and harder to pee. I assume this is normal but figured I’d list every symptom so far
Wondering if others here struggled to stay positive during this treatment / what their experience was.
Can a case be made for ADT vacation during a 4week radiation therapy?
What should I expect from treatment 
What should I expect?
I did 8 weeks five per week imrt.. I had 1,2,3,4,not 5, but 6. All pretty normal side effects I’m afraid . Just ge5 him through to the other side . Prop him up when he needs it .
Thank you Lulu ! Appreciate your response. Ouch you had to do a full 8 weeks of this !? I hope it didn’t get progressively worse for the entire 8 weeks. Hoping it just tapers off and stays the same at least.
God bless on getting through it.. I’ll be honest hearing 5-8 weeks at the start had me thinking “wow that won’t be that bad to get through”.. we’ll now we’re 2 weeks in and I couldn’t have been more wrong
Keep eating berries and healthy stuff only ..Yah , they fried me up pretty good, the good news is that it kicked the pc n the teeth for a good long time .So that is the best that we can hope for with #4 . Imrt was nothing to me until 3 weeks in . I got chronic fatigue syndrome for about three years from it ,and my urological complications ( uti’s for two years ) which drug me down . We’ve heard that saying” If it doesn’t kill ya , it makes you stronger “ That doesn’t apply to pc treatment . They diminish us Greatly . Stay very hydrated .. and at least walk each day if you can . Some fellows breeze through it , they say ? We trade away many our manly features ( muscle bone cognition stamina and endurance ) in order to live another day . Pc is a trade off if we are to survive it at all for any period of time . Stay strong , rest up afterwards..And recovery takes some time too . But if it all works then it’s worth it . Hang in there ! 💪👍
Is he on Tamsulosin (Flomax) for urinary issues? If so increasing the dosage may help. When I went through RT I had increased difficulties with urination. My RO doubled my tamsulosin dosage and it helped. About 2 weeks after RT was over my dosage was reduced back my pre-RT level and all was back to normal, at least normal for someone with PCa.
Hey fireandice,
Yeah he is on flomax, he just picked up another prescription of it BUT I never thought to ask him the dosage. So unsure if they upped the dose or what for him. He just went to bed now so I’ll ask him in the morning.
Appreciate the recommendation if they are not already doing so
Flomax did not work for me and I now take Duodart or Doubluts. Both the same, contains Tamsulosin + Dutasteride. It works for me, one capsule daily at 5pm. Without it, I have trouble peeing. Dutasteride is also beneficial in combatting PC. I had 23 sessions of EBRT, breezed through it except for fatigue. Need to exercise. Also on ADT, that is another story and I have all the side effects but you put up with it because it keeps the cancer suppressed (hopefully). Stay positive and live life. Good luck.