Frequent Urination post Radiation

I experienced more urinary frequency during radiation and it lasted for a couple of weeks following. That is fairly normal. I counteracted it by eliminating carbonated drinks and caffiene. My doc put me on Flomax during the time and it helped. The only way I solved the 3 AM pee was to stop all liquids by 8 in the evening. He should keep drinking a lot of water, just not late at night.

We are making a urologist appointment and i will surely enquire about flomax or something similar. My father is 73 years old. He's rather scared, thinking the radiation has done nothing since he still has this urinating frequency. I do my best to keep him calm. I will heed the advice above regarding caffeine, carbonated drinks and any liquids past 8am.

Thanks!

It gets better over time but yes, that is one of the prices to pay for radiation.

Right now I have a mental map of all the men's rooms within 10 mile radius of my home and office. A cup of tea takes about 90 minutes before urgently needing to locate one of those men's rooms.

Right after I finish RT, I had to get up once or twice during the night but now, two years later, I can sleep through the whole night. I try not to drink anything within about an hour or two of getting into bed.

The fatigue will pass quickly. Walking and exercise can help bring the energy levels back up. Don't be afraid to complain to the doctor about the symptoms, there's a lot they can do to ease the worst of the side effects. Over time most of it resolves all by itself.

Hang in there,
Andrew

My night time urgency also peaked about 5-7 weeks into radiation treatment. I was up about 6 times a night for a while, and prior to radiation I pretty much always slept through the night. The sensation associated with urinating changed too, going from a typical "full bladder" sensation to a kind of painful sensation instead. This is aggravated by coffee, in my case. During radiation treatment I almost eliminated coffee, but drink it again now.

I guess the valve at the base of the bladder must be a little angry, and gives a pain sensation when the bladder pressure builds. It probably caught quite a bit of radiation, being more-or-less integral to that end of the prostate.

It's now been 8 months since finishing radiation, and I still get up once or twice a night. I don't know if I'll ever go back to the pre-radiation status (hot flashes at night don't help either). As PeterDA said above, it also varies over time. In the last month or so I've gotten more sensitive to coffee again (I've read it's not really the caffeine, but coffee itself is acidic with or without caffeine, and is also a diuretic). I've been drinking a LOT more water during the day, and that's helping.

This is all, near as I can tell, common for radiation therapy's after-effects. Sigh....

No treatment for prostate cancer improves your quality of life.

Having been on HT (Lupron and Casodex) twice for a year at a time, I can absolutely conclude that the HT itself causes frequent nighttime urination. I was getting up 3-4 times each night. Fortunately, I seemed to be able to go back to sleep okay.

I started my HT vacation on Tuesday or Wednesday and I am already noticing a huge improvement in that area (slept through the night last night)

Mel