Posted 12/8/2019 7:20 AM (GMT 0)
A few months back I posted about radiation side effects that landed me in the hospital a couple of times. With the advice of some of you on here with your radiation SEs, I got a referral for 40 two hour treats for Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT). It was somewhat of a grind in that I had the treatments at UCLA and stayed down in LA during the week as the traffic is just too much to take for that many days (about 4 hours a day if I decided to drive). The lead doc stated on my consultation that he sees more success with the radiation cystitis/urinary and proctitis issues. The enteritis issues seem less effective due to the deeper location of the issues. Since I have all three issues I signed up for the 40 treatments, which he said would be the minimum he would recommend in my case. Luckily I had already paid my maximum out of pocket on insurance because after the discounts, Blue Shield paid $2,600 per treatment ($100k)! One thing about UCLA is they have a great HBOT center, around the corner from the radiation treatment area where I had my Brachytherapy. They have two large chambers. One that seats 8 patients and one that seats 4. They also wheel some patients in on gurneys if they can’t walk. They issue you scrubs as you can’t wear anything that might be hazardous around the oxygen, including watches, cell phones.. pretty much just glasses if you need them. You wear a large ring around your neck that has a rubber gasket, cut to be snug as to not let the oxygen escape. On the ring they put a large clear hood over your head after they take the chamber down to the equivalent of 45 feet under. There are a couple of 5 minute breaks during to prevent oxygen toxicity to the lungs. A tech is in the sealed chamber the entire time, just not on Oxygen. They do play a movie, although a bad movie can make the 2 hours feel like 4... however a good action movie can make the time seem shorter. If you are lucky, and no one is next to you, you can lay down. If not, a sore back and neck seemed to be in order for me by the end of the 2 hours. An interesting note: I met about 20 different patients all with either an acute case of the bends after diving, or diabetic issues or post surgery healing issues. But out of the 20 I met 6 of the guys had PCa radiation treatment SEs. Most of them were there for radiation cystitis or proctitis issues. Most of them said they had some relief after 20 to 25 treatments. Of the guys I talked to, all of them had radiation within the last few years. I guess the external beam radiation can always nip you as it tries to kill the PCa. I felt some relief with the same areas after about 30+ treatments. I actually went from 2 Flomax per day down to 1 and on the last week I didn’t take any. It was short lived in that I needed to go back to 1x per day a week after I stopped treatments. The doc recommended I have 10 more treatments but I told him I was mentally prepared to stop. Maybe early next year I will go for 2 more weeks. He stated that I can take a break since I already did the 40. I am unsure of how well it worked on the enteritis as the issues come in cycles and I generally have discomfort and that hasn’t went away. Time will tell. One last side effect from the HBOT, that affects a fair amount of people... I used reading glasses before I started treatments, but no glasses needed for distance. After about 8 or so treatments my distance vision got blurry. I couldn’t see street signs or judge distance of cars at night. The opposite of that problem is I didn’t need my +1.75 reading glasses at all. Apparently it is called a myopic shift and happens as a result of oxygen toxicity to the lens of the eyes. They form tiny crystals and harden a little, hence the vision change. It is supposed to reverse back in about a month or so.... Just goes to show you, there always seems to be Side Effects! Have a good day. -JR