Secondary Cancer Risks post SRT

Good to hear from you, DD, wondered how things were in your world.

I feel for you dad, trust me. Knowing that I can never have a catheter in me again for life, has its own silver cloud, due to having the permament urostomy in place. I still feel traumatized from having spent a total of 1 1/2 years on 21 different caths. That was a horrifying time in my life.

Going to have to check out on the non-invasive colon check. On the bladder, since my entrances and exit to the bladder are sealed, even if it were bleeding, there would be no way for it to exit. Based on the bladder spasms I still experience, even after all this time, I can assume from the pain, that the interior walls of my bladder are still very much inflamed. I remember the surgeon saying after the urostomy surgery, that they injected a large amount of some kind of anti-biotic into the bladder before it was sealed, something like that. Kind of hard to remember.

Give my best to your father. The worse cath experiences I ever had were in the ER. I cringe just thinking about that.

David

David,
Just saw this and I must say you have thought this out very well. Really can't add anything to the discussion except that I hope you will reach an "agreement" with the radiation lab, hopefully one that is heavily in your favor and includes frequent imaging to detect any possible problems.

Best of luck to you
Dave in Durango CO

UPDATE: SATURDAY, MARCH 3RD

Based on some input on this thread, and some new research based on the same input, I am putting together a new letter to my oncologist, that I hope to have in his hands by Monday.

On the colon side, I am all for the Virtual Colonoscopy. Read some articles about it. Sounds promising and pretty accurate, and safe for someone that has radiation damage in place as I do. Part of it didnt sound too pleasant, but I have been through much worse in the name of testing.

On the bladder side, which is my greatest concern, because my unprotected bladder took a full 72 gys of radiaton, they are starting to to Virtual Scoping, in the form of an advance CAT Scan. The advantage I read, that with a regular bladder cancer check with a scope - all they can see is the inner wall of the bladder, with the virtual scope, they can measure the walls of the bladder - thus spotting tumours before they are big enough to show up on the inner wall. For me to have a conventional scoping, at the least, would involve another day surgery, under General A., in order to re-open a sealed off bladder neck. I had six of those surgeries prior, and each one cost the average of $15,000 each. I think this Virtual test would have to cost much less than that, and there would not be anything invasive, nor anything requiring a recovery.

It would put my mind to rest at this point, if I knew those two areas were at least cancer free for now. I will let you know what my doctor things about these two items once he replies.

David in SC

Mal, my friend, thanks for your reply.

It's been 28 months almost since my SRT ended, amazing really. In the past 2-3 months, starting to have some urgent bowel issues that were never there before. Sometimes, within minutes of a meal, I start getting violent stomach cramps, and honesty, I had better be near a toilet. Once I start cramping, I can barely make it to the throne. If I am driving when this happens, I instantly locate the first available bathroom, even if it is at a place I wouldn't normally trust. In the past year, I had one real "accident" in the car, and even though alone, I was so humiliated and embarrassed, and what a mess to deal with once I got home. So I understand what you are saying.

Like they say, radiation is the gift that keeps on giving and giving. My oncologist said that sometimes the worse side effects sometimes don't show up for 5-6 years after ending it. That's not a very pleasant thought to dwell on.

My best to you, as usual.

David in SC