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Posted 3/9/2010 8:08 PM (GMT 0)
Well just started radiation treatments 3 months after Robotic Surgery just as a precautionary measure. I was wondering if anyone who has had radiation felt any kind of pain after there treatments? Also, did the radiation add to the ED problems after the prostate surgery?
Posted 3/9/2010 8:18 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Hunter,
I developed some rectal irritation (proctitis) towards the end of radiation treatments. It was painful in the sense that bowel movements hurt. My doctor prescribed a topical treatment, Proctofoam, that relieved the pain. Things got better over the next several months, and I now don't have any side effects that I can attribute to radiation. My ED from the prostatectomy seems about the same.
Everyone's different. Some guys report zero side effects, others have side effects worse than what I experienced.
Posted 3/9/2010 8:53 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Hunter,

I am just a little puzzled, why radiation would be required at this stage, seems like a fairly good path report with gleason 6, surely would you not wait for a psa rise first ?

Kev

Posted 3/9/2010 9:16 PM (GMT 0)
Hunter,

I also agree with Kev, but hey now you have started them so go with the tx. I have 3 left and really not much pain, some fatigue, loose bowels and frequent urination. Some light burning pain around the mid-section but not sure if that is caused by my post-op nueropathy or radiation or the combination of the two. Wish you the best and keep us posted.

Michael

Posted 3/9/2010 9:45 PM (GMT 0)
Hunter,

Yes, I was one of the rare one that had a lot of pain with my salvage radiation treatments, 39 of them for a total of 72 gys of radiation. I had a lot of trouble with radiation years before not related to prostate cancer, and I had the complication of having a suprapubic catheter in place during all of my treatments. I would get a lot of burning pains both in the rectal and penile areas, and when the treatments were being done, I would sometimes get a strong burning sensation where the catheter exited my stomach area. It's been 3 months since my radiation ended, and most of those pains have either lessened or gone away. Still dealing with fatigue, though.

Not smarter than your doctors, and you should be compliant to them, of course, but curious too, why you needed radiation so soon, when you had a Gleson 6 cancer, which is usually low grade, and a zero post surgery PSA, the normal criteria isn't there for having radiation, unless there is more to the story than you posted.

David in SC
Posted 3/9/2010 11:53 PM (GMT 0)
HI Hunter Iagree with Purgatorys 2nd pargarph I had 40 treaments at 75 similar to Galileo systoms but not as bad 3 months out hips stiff when getting up but improving every day Back at work one week and two days Cons't Supt walking is helping to get over it.
DEERHUNTER
Posted 3/9/2010 11:53 PM (GMT 0)
No real pain or anything like it in my experience, some mild side effects starting in week three or four. In the E.D. Dept I was starting over again. Rad tends to affect the blood vessels, not the nerves, so now it really isnt in your head, it's physiological. Takes a while to recover, just like after surgery. 5 and 1/2 months after Rad I am seeing more light at the end of the tunnel than I was before Rad, six months after open R.P.
Posted 3/10/2010 12:08 AM (GMT 0)
PS Hunter, forgot to add, I didn't have any ED problem prior to my salvage radiation, and so far, haven't had any post radiation, though that may catch up to me at some point in the future, but hoping not.
Posted 3/10/2010 8:55 PM (GMT 0)
Just celebrated two years since my final salvage treatment this week.  Happy to report no major side effects during the IMRT or after and I am still good to go on the erection front as well.  I did go through some periods during the past two years where I felt I might be having slight ED issues but in retrospect I think it was all in my head. 

I happen to agree with your aggressive approach on treatment as I did not wait for much of a psa rise before I took further action.  There is mounting evidence that radiation following surgery significantly improves survival even if it doesn't cure the disease which to me makes the radiation worth the potential side effects.

If you are young then I think you need to go after the disease aggressively.

Posted 3/10/2010 10:48 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you for all your responses. I asked the Oncologist why we wouldn't wait for the PSA to rise.. He told me that it use to be the old school rule of thumb to wait. But in recent years they have found that using a low dose radiation as a precautionary measure means less likelihood that they missed any small cancer cells during surgery that they could not see. He also explained that if we waited for the PSA to rise treatment could be worse and it could also give the cancer a chance to spread else where. I guess an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.
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