I noticed you haven't had a reply just yet so I just wanted to welcome you to the forum and reassure you that your post has been seen.
I'm so sorry to hear you had such a rough time with your chemo, but hopefully the radiotherapy will be much better.
You can find out more about radiotherapy on our website but if you have any questions or concerns you would like to discuss with one of our cancer nurses, you can give them a call on 0808 800 4040, Monday - Friday between 9a.m - 5p.m.
Hopefully some of our members who have had radiotherapy will be along soon to offer you their tips and advice to you as well.
Hi Les, i'm really sorry for jumping into your thread so late but i've just literally joined. I was diagnosed with stage 3 colo-rectal cancer in October last year, started on a radox trial involving, in order; radiotherapy, chemotherapy (currently undergoing) then hopefully surgery (hopefully in May this year).
My radiotherapy was literally targeted above my tackle because it being 'bowel cancer' & during the procedure didn't feel a thing. Usually the nurses do a CT with contrast (canula in arm) before the first procedure to establish where the cancer is and have you aligned for tattooing so the machine knows where to aim. Once tattoed, it was wait to get called, lay on machine, delicately man handled into position and lay there for the machine to do it's work, no pain.
During and after radiotherapy treatment, I suffered fecal incontinence and was usually diarrhoea so had to wear tena for men when working (plumber so no luxury of a guaranteed working toilet) but still had physical strength to do things, go walking, play with kids etc. Those side effects lasted maybe a couple weeks after the last radiotherapy session and everything just seemed to go back to normal, physically.
Mentally, different kettle of fish obviously but you've got this, concentrate on getting better and that removes any cloud of doubt you've got going on. You will find you'll surprise yourself with just how strong you are, the whole situation you are are going through is *** and I get it, do battle.
Hi there, I am so sorry that you had such a tough time with your chemo. I am not sure what type of cancer you have but I have recently completed 20 sessions of radiotherapy for breast cancer and apart from some skin reddening had no side effects. I definitely think drinking plenty of water and moisturising the treated area helped massively. Obviously it does depend on the dose of treatment you are given in terms of side effects. Wishing you all the very best of luck with your treatment.
