Hi Olly73, you have given me much room for thought. I am due to have my first radium injection on Weds the 4th November. My disease is described by my team as "Not cureable, but treatable" I have secondary cancer in 4 places, ribs, arm, thigh,but mostly in my spine in the Lumbar region. My dilemma after reading your post and the post left by dmicheal is that I am not currently having a great deal of pain, and what I do have is easily controlled by MST ( slow release morphine pills). Having read the two posts I am slightly apprehensive about starting a treatment which makes things worse. Any observations?

Hi fusilier 

My dad is 5 out of 6 now and not very well at all he can hardly walk in severe pain and they are saying it's the treatment.  My dad now is refusing to have the last treatment as until the start of it was fairly active considering he was not made fully aware of the side effects at the time. I hope you made your decision and are getting on well as everyone is different  x

Hello everyone,
 
I am one of the nurse enquiry team and Jane our moderator asked if we could shed any light on the side effects that can occur with radium (223) treatment. 
 
We have some information about radium 223 injections on our patient website. This says it is rare to have an increase in pain after treatment. So reassuringly this is uncommon, but although radium 223 often works well, unfortunately it doesn’t always work for everyone. So I suppose if the radium 223 hasn’t worked then this might explain why someone’s pain is getting worse. I don’t think radium 223 works all that quickly, but I have read that some people can start to feel a benefit after 2 weeks. 
 
Olly, I am not sure what is happening with your dad. Pain can make mobilizing very difficult, but I don’t know if this is the only reason why your dad can hardly walk now. As your dad’s general health seems to be declining this may be why he is less mobile, but sometimes when there is cancer in the backbone it can put pressure on the spinal cord. This is called spinal cord compression and can stop the nerves from working properly and lead to weakness in the legs. Spinal cord compression is an emergency and needs to be assessed urgently as treatment might be required. Everyone working in cancer knows about spinal cord compression so I am sure that is something that has been considered by your dad’s medical team, but I need to mention it because I am not sure when your dad was last assessed.  If the doctors are not aware of the weakness it would be sensible to let them know as soon as possible just in case it is spinal cord compression.   We have more information about spinal cord compression here.
 
I’m afraid I can’t tell you what will happen with your dad’s mobility because I am not really sure what the cause of the problem is. All I can suggest is that you speak to his team. I am sorry you haven’t had much success so far. Doctors can’t always predict what will happen which might be why you aren’t getting any answers but do ask them again.  I am sorry I can’t tell you more.
 
Take care
 
Julia
 

I went ahead and had my first injection in a course of 6 over 24 weeks last Wednesday the 4th November.I am glad to report to my fellow sufferers that so far so good. I do not discern any side effects so far, on the other hand,I do not discern any benefits so far either! The back pain I had before starting the course is still there and has to be controlled by a fairly low dosage of MST ( Slow release Morphine pills).I take one pill of 10 mgs each morning and one pill of 15 mgs before bed.This regime allows me to function quite normally and if there is sometimes a little more "break through" pain, I take over the counter pain killers, Paracetamol, etc. There is a certain problem with this pain control regime, and that is constipation. Morphine blocks me solid so I now take Laxidol at the same time as the morphine, one sachet twice a day, this seems to work for me. If it helps anyone, I shall write a weekly update throughout my 24 week course. Good luck everyone......Joe.

I went ahead and had my first injection in a course of 6 over 24 weeks last Wednesday the 4th November.I am glad to report to my fellow sufferers that so far so good. I do not discern any side effects so far, on the other hand,I do not discern any benefits so far either! The back pain I had before starting the course is still there and has to be controlled by a fairly low dosage of MST ( Slow release Morphine pills).I take one pill of 10 mgs each morning and one pill of 15 mgs before bed.This regime allows me to function quite normally and if there is sometimes a little more "break through" pain, I take over the counter pain killers, Paracetamol, etc. There is a certain problem with this pain control regime, and that is constipation. Morphine blocks me solid so I now take Laxidol at the same time as the morphine, one sachet twice a day, this seems to work for me. If it helps anyone, I shall write a weekly update throughout my 24 week course. Good luck everyone......Joe.

Hi everyone, as promised, my weekly update after having my first Radium 223 injection on the 10th November. I have not noticed any increase in pain severity, but I do appear to have pain in my hip joint where there was none before. This is easily controlled by over the counter pain killers in addition to my 25 mgs of MST ( morphine slow release) daily. As I reported before, my main problem is with constipation. Taking MST so regularly has the immediate effect of blocking me solid for days on end  unless I take laxatives at the same time.I now take Laxidol three times a day which at least keeps stools soft and makes things a little easier. When I have not moved bowels for 3 days, I resort to Senna, and if that fails( it does occasionally) I use a small self enema. All in all, so far so good.I console myself with the thought that the radiation may be shrinking the cancer as we speak ( or write). My next injection is due on Weds 2nd December. Before then, I must have a full blood count test to check that the treatment is not harming my production of platelets,etc.Onwards and upwards my fellow Radium 223 patients, and good luck.....Joe. 

Hi everyone, just to report that  had my 3rd injection of radium 223 on the 30th December with no discernable side effects so far.I am still having quite a problem with OIC ( Opioid induced constipation).Morphine seems to block me solid no matter how much Laxido or Senna I take.This results in very uncomfortable piles, making life a tad miserable! I have been reading about a painkiller called TARGINACT, which does not cause constipation,as it is not taken into the gut, anyone heard of it?  Good luck to other bone cancer sufferers, lets hang in as other stuff is coming online all the time.Hapy New Year.........Joe.