Body & Soul3 mins ago
Radiotherapy
10 Answers
A family member is due to have radiotherapy and is anxious about the side effects both long and short term .
Has anyone had experience of this treatment or know someone who has ?
Has anyone had experience of this treatment or know someone who has ?
Answers
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No, I have never had or needed Radiotherapy.
No, I have never had or needed Radiotherapy.
Depends where on the body to some extent, generally skin soreness and redness, a bit like a bad sunburn. Good skin care is essential. They recommend Aveeno, at the QEH, or some of the other better skincare ranges products. Fatigue can be a real problem for some people. If you know where they are having it, I can get more specific stuff. The radiotherapy department should have loads of info, as well as your relation's Macmillan nurse(s). There may also be a nurse attached to the radiotherapy department , always worth asking.
I had 37 sessions of radiotherapy. Although it was a pain in the posterior having to drive to and from the hospital every weekday for 7½ weeks, the treatment itself was an absolute doddle. Here's a quick breakdown of how it works:
Depending upon the condition that your family member is being treated for, he/she might be required to make some initial preparations before going to the hospital each day. In my case, because I was being treated for prostate cancer, I needed to present myself at the hospital with an empty bowel but a full bladder. That meant squirting a fast-acting enema up my backside an hour or so before my appointment time and then, once the enema had done its work, drinking half a litre of water. (If a patient finds that amount too much, and ends up absolutely bursting for a pee during the treatment, it can be reduced a bit after consultation with the radiography team. I ended up drinking about 420ml of water 50 minutes before my treatment).
If your family member is also having pelvic radiotherapy, it's likely that they'll have to do the same sort of things before attending the hospital on each occasion. However if, say, they're being treated for breast cancer, then there might be rather different preparations (or possibly none at all) involved.
The radiotherapy team were very good at keeping everything according to schedule, so there were no long waits at the hospital. (That can be rather important when one has a full bladder!). I was usually back in my car within half an hour of my arrival.
The actual treatment is (from a patient's perspective) simplicity itself. I simply had to remove any relevant clothing and lie down on the treatment table. (Actually, there was hardly any 'removal' of clothing involved at all. I just lowered my trousers a bit and then, once on the treatment table and after a paper cover had been placed over my masculinity, slid my underpants down). Then I simply stayed still while the machine moved around me, doing its work. There's absolutely no pain or discomfort involved (other than a desire to pee, possibly!) and the machine makes very little noise.
Once the procedure was completed, and I'd adjusted my clothing, I was quickly on my way back to my car.
The ONLY side-effect that I experienced was quite a bit of tiredness but, as I was still recovering from 10 high-dose chemotherapy sessions, that was nothing new anyway.
The subject of radiotherapy has come up here several times before and, whenever I've described it as a 'doddle', there seem to have been plenty of people agreeing with me and no real dissenters.
Depending upon the condition that your family member is being treated for, he/she might be required to make some initial preparations before going to the hospital each day. In my case, because I was being treated for prostate cancer, I needed to present myself at the hospital with an empty bowel but a full bladder. That meant squirting a fast-acting enema up my backside an hour or so before my appointment time and then, once the enema had done its work, drinking half a litre of water. (If a patient finds that amount too much, and ends up absolutely bursting for a pee during the treatment, it can be reduced a bit after consultation with the radiography team. I ended up drinking about 420ml of water 50 minutes before my treatment).
If your family member is also having pelvic radiotherapy, it's likely that they'll have to do the same sort of things before attending the hospital on each occasion. However if, say, they're being treated for breast cancer, then there might be rather different preparations (or possibly none at all) involved.
The radiotherapy team were very good at keeping everything according to schedule, so there were no long waits at the hospital. (That can be rather important when one has a full bladder!). I was usually back in my car within half an hour of my arrival.
The actual treatment is (from a patient's perspective) simplicity itself. I simply had to remove any relevant clothing and lie down on the treatment table. (Actually, there was hardly any 'removal' of clothing involved at all. I just lowered my trousers a bit and then, once on the treatment table and after a paper cover had been placed over my masculinity, slid my underpants down). Then I simply stayed still while the machine moved around me, doing its work. There's absolutely no pain or discomfort involved (other than a desire to pee, possibly!) and the machine makes very little noise.
Once the procedure was completed, and I'd adjusted my clothing, I was quickly on my way back to my car.
The ONLY side-effect that I experienced was quite a bit of tiredness but, as I was still recovering from 10 high-dose chemotherapy sessions, that was nothing new anyway.
The subject of radiotherapy has come up here several times before and, whenever I've described it as a 'doddle', there seem to have been plenty of people agreeing with me and no real dissenters.
Chris
//I needed to present myself at the hospital with an empty bowel but a full bladder. That meant squirting a fast-acting enema up my backside an hour or so before my appointment//
Crikey - i don't think he's going to like that , when i tell him ( he has prostate cancer , like you did )
I think he's been looking on the net re long/short term side effects of radiotherapy specific to prostate cancer .
In your case , have you looked into the possible long term effects ?
Is he right to be worried ?
//I needed to present myself at the hospital with an empty bowel but a full bladder. That meant squirting a fast-acting enema up my backside an hour or so before my appointment//
Crikey - i don't think he's going to like that , when i tell him ( he has prostate cancer , like you did )
I think he's been looking on the net re long/short term side effects of radiotherapy specific to prostate cancer .
In your case , have you looked into the possible long term effects ?
Is he right to be worried ?
Those enemas are tiny, Bazile. There's only 5ml of liquid in each one:
https:/
I wasn't exactly overjoyed at the prospect of using them. Unless otherwise instructed, they have to be used on every day during the treatment period, including on those days (such as at weekends) when no radiotherapy is actually taking place. However all that's needed is a quick squirt and then staying near a loo for no more than about 5 minutes. It's not really as bad as it sounds!
All lists of side effects can appear scary if one studies then too closely. For example, if you read the leaflets that come with everyday medications, such as ibuprofen and paracetamol, a bit too closely, you'd probably never take them! Just as with the long list of side effects in those leaflets, most people experience few (if any) side effects from the list of those possible with radiotherapy.
In my case, rather than the radiotherapy leading to lymphoedema (as mentioned as a possible side effect here: https:/
https:/
I wasn't exactly overjoyed at the prospect of using them. Unless otherwise instructed, they have to be used on every day during the treatment period, including on those days (such as at weekends) when no radiotherapy is actually taking place. However all that's needed is a quick squirt and then staying near a loo for no more than about 5 minutes. It's not really as bad as it sounds!
All lists of side effects can appear scary if one studies then too closely. For example, if you read the leaflets that come with everyday medications, such as ibuprofen and paracetamol, a bit too closely, you'd probably never take them! Just as with the long list of side effects in those leaflets, most people experience few (if any) side effects from the list of those possible with radiotherapy.
In my case, rather than the radiotherapy leading to lymphoedema (as mentioned as a possible side effect here: https:/
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