my Movember moustache so far

[ukpete]

Hi all, I’m sorry about the photo but I’m doing Movember with my work mates, we’ve raised quite a bit upto now,

I’ve got my next PSA test in a couple of weeks unfortunately it’s risen since I had the radical prostectomy last September, looks like radiotherapy is on the horizon,

I’m feeling good but just wondered what to expect, looks like 4 weeks of treatment will happen, will I still be able to work, eat , sleep, what effects should I expect to happen?

Maybe my PSA will come down and treatment won’t happen, but realistically it has constantly gone up from 0.02 to 0.13,

All the best, Pete (England)

[treedown]

Your response may vary from any others but mine wasn't much of a issue. More peeing at night, like 4 times, during and a couple weeks after. Then better than before. Showing up daily for 9 weeks got old at the end but I rode my bike and enjoyed it mostly. The rainy cold days maybe not as much. Follwo instructions on what not to eat. You want empty bowels and full bladder so that takes a little planning. I hope yours is a breeze and more so that it isn't needed at all.

[Aodh]

Hi Pete,

I didn’t have surgery (was past the point where it could have been curative), so I had 39 sessions of external beam radiation (over 8 weeks) plus ADT. Apart from the tiredness of travelling to and from the hospital 40 miles each way roughly and needing to have a full bladder and empty bowel each day upon arriving at the hospital, the radiation treatment was issue free until week 7 when I developed some cystitis (easily resolved by taking 2 Solpadeine at night for a couple of weeks).

Best to layoff tea and coffee while having radiation (it can bring on the cystitis!) and avoid all gassy foods for the duration. No beans, no spicy curry etc.

My sleep wasn’t impacted, I was retired so not in work. Apart from being absent for the treatment sessions (expect 1 to 2 hours in the hospital each day) and being a bit tired towards the end of treatment, work shouldn’t be an issue.

I was only on the machine table for 2 to 3 minutes each day in the hospital but there are always delays even though each patient is given a specific treatment schedule!

The drinking of at least 2 litres of water each day to ensure adequate hydration is a tad difficult but it prevents the prostate being in the wrong position (don’t worry, the technicians check every day).

The protocol for me was to arrive at my scheduled time, pee and poop if necessary and then drink a specific amount of water within a 10 minute time frame and then wait for 30 to 40 minutes (to ensure the water had reached my bladder!) before being called to undress and lie on the table (the linac machine rotates around the table in a couple of mins). Then dress, definitely pee and get on with my day! Actually it’s a boring time to be honest, but well worth it to kill the cancer in the prostate. The ADT killed the circulating cancer cells that radiation wasn’t targeting.

Hugh