Completed Radiation Treatments

Finally....I have completed 44 days of radiation treatments at the University of Pennsylvania. When I began, I thought they would never end. Now that it is over, it wasn't so bad. It was quite an interesting experience though. I took advantage of the Calypso beacons which were implanted in my prostate prior to initiation of the treatments. The beacons were electromagnetic radioafrequency beacons that helped to ensure that the radiation beam concentrated on the prostate, and not the bladder or colon. I also had a balloon inserted in my rectum prior to each treatment. The purpose of this was to keep as much of the colon surface away from the radiation beam. During the 44 days of treatment I was on a 'no fiber' diet. The purpose was to eliminate any gas in the bowel that could cause the prostate to move during treatment. As a result, I have experienced only very minor bladder side effects (minor urgency). Of course I got plenty of rest and exercise during the treatments and drank lots of water. And now I wait 2 months until I have a PSA test. Can't wait for the result. I'm very optimistic.

I to am glad to hear you graduated from radiation. I went through 44 rounds of IMRT and I was happy it when it was over. I have to say you enlightened me on some procedures you went through with radiation. I had never heard of the ballon you refered to. Stay in touch with his here at HW. Please know we care about your well being. Like David said radiation can cause fatigue so get some rest and enjoy living.

peace and love
dale

It is great to have that chapter behind you, alot of sessions. Do not be disappointed with your first psa reading, as this is way different from surgery post psa's in comparison. Your nadir (lowest psa) post treatments will likely be down the road, mine was 6 months(after) but also was on ADT drugs, but it never got lower than that time frame, and I monitored it monthly or better (walkin psa tests $15) Crittenton Hosp.-Michigan. Yours could be really long like in months to year+ to reach lowest and if you have a radiation bounce (quick upward trend=short in duration generally), that always throws folks for a loop (but that is only about 1/3 of patients that experience that....it is a kind of radiation induced, prostatitis it is said and goes away, psa then goes back down. So just be prepared to get alot of future psa tests to 'know' where you do stand, it can take time with radiation.

There are alot of radiations protocols/methods out there if one wishes to look into such.

Congratulations on completeing that long drawn out proceedure Fensty! I too send the best of wishes for a speedy recovery and double zeros from here on out!

Thanks to all for your kind words of encouragement. By the way, the balloon I referred to is more formally referred to as the Radiadyne Prostate Immobilization Device. You can learn more about it at www. radiadyne.com.

Greetings, Fentsy.  Congratulations on finishing your radiation.  Now we'll start to look for that good PSA report in a few weeks.  David