Posted 4/16/2017 7:35 PM (GMT 0)
Hi, Tim,
I can divide my side effects into two categories -- those that occurred shortly after treatment, and those that continue even now, nearly 5 months after the completion of my treatments.
I really had no side effects during the two weeks of treatment. Yes, I was a bit more tired than normal, but nothing that got in the way of my life. I had my treatment first thing in the morning, then went to work for the rest of the day. I even got to the fitness center almost every day after work -- except for the Thanksgiving holiday when we had a house full of company.
Before I discuss side effects after treatment, I need to remind you that for some years prior to diagnosis I have dealt with IBS - irritable bowel syndrome. I'll let you Google that, but it is a disruption of the intestinal function with no known cause and lots of potential meds and dietary helps. You just don't know what will work and for how long.
about a week after my final treatment, I developed some urinary "reluctance" - not bad enough to run to the doc, but enough that I asked for a prescription for Flomax to help things along. I took Flomax for 5 weeks or so, not needing it for the longer term.
Around the same time, I developed rather painful and annoying proctitis. Mine consisted of pain upon bowel movement, accompanied by surprise bowel movements (not "surprise" enough to miss getting to the bathroom, but happening at times unusual for me). Bowel movements were accompanied by nasty muscle cramps in the rectum. At around this time, I also found that I was unable to separately control urinary and fecal evacuation, so if I knew I needed to urinate, I sat on the toilet, "just in case." Many times I felt I needed to move my bowels, there was all the fanfare, all the muscle cramping, and not much moving out. This lasted for perhaps a couple of weeks, but by week 3 or 4 post-treatment, it was just about gone.
The lasting gift I am receiving from the radiation is that it has exacerbated my IBS. I have had several "flare-ups" of the IBS, celebrated by intestinal cramping that is usually tolerable, but has on a couple of occasions awakened me from a sound sleep or kept me from getting to sleep at night. To make matters more interesting, my cramps seem to move around to various areas of the abdomen and may come or go on a moment's notice. Not the sort of thing to send me to the ER, but annoying just the same.
I would not expect you to experience this latter set of side effects unless you also suffer from IBS. The proctitis. . . may be more common. It is very manageable for most of us, but as the guys say, "Never trust a fart."
I'm not sure if I should say anything, but the last couple of weeks, things have been settling down, internally. I do expect things to get back to "baseline" where my other internal issues will go back to whatever their usual severity and frequency were pre-treatment. I am more than willing to give things time, as I chose CyberKnife as the treatment most closely matched with my life, my medical needs and my mental state. I wouldn't do it any other way, as I have recently discussed my 4-month PSA results with my RO, and we're totally pleased with where I am. My pre-treatment peak PSA was 5.69, and at 4 months out, it is 3.03. As long as it continues downward, we're where we need to be.