Bowel SE's 3 months after SRT

It should. Most of the bad things post RT had cleared by about six months for me.

If it doesn't you might win a trip to the gastroenterologist's office for a nice check up.

Lose bowels is a problem for some of us RT guys. Just to make you feel better, sometimes the lose bowel situation reverses to epic constipation.

Hang in there,
Andrew

Mine did not get any better until my hyperbaric oxygen treatments last year. I'm down from a dozen or so a day for five years to three now. Epic QOL improvement!

I believe that Adjuvant RT caused my bowel issues. My bladder neck and urethra were badly burned (enough to require the hyperbaric O2), so it is easy to blame the colo-rectal burns to previous surgery sites to the RT as well.

I'm now almost 4 months out from the finish of my SBRT monotherapy, and I still deal with urgency, frequency and loose stools. I'm not surprised, though, as I also had IBS before the radiation, so I knew that I was at higher than normal risk for these side effects. Most days, things are quite tolerable now, but months 2 and 3 were more problematic. If things stay as-is, I can live with it. (Now 2-4 bathroom trips/day). If it improves, I'll be even happier.

The nadir for radiation side effects seems to be about 3 years after treatment ends. There is often a side effect 'flare' just before the nadir.

Before RT, I was regular and constipation was never a problem due to my diet and exercise program. After adjuvant radiation therapy I experienced more frequency, urgency and my daily morning bowel movement window got wider. As my radiation oncologist warned me, my hemorrhoids also bled more often. This continually got more intense for a little more than 3 years after treatment ended. Urgency, frequency, cramping and bleeding all got more intense until last Oct-Nov & the first half of Dec when those side effects got pretty nasty indeed. I spent a lot of time on the throne.

Then, the side effects began to back off in intensity about half way through December. Now they are not unreasonable, though I still hit the toilet frequently during my daily morning window and the 'roids still bleed some. The cramping, urgency etc have backed way off, though my colon still considers a clean toilet a challenge. I pee a lot more frequently now than I used to.

I got a regularly scheduled colonoscopy last July that showed I had several large gas blisters in my colon. The gastroenterologist took pictures of them, gave me copies. He said they were not uncommon, weren't a concern and would dissipate eventually.

All treatments and non treatments have side effects, however, and each of us experience them to a differing degree. Our personal task is to deal with those side effects as best we can and accommodate the changes that have come into our life.