Radiation treatment

[Roselee]

Hi everyone

I have terminal bowel cancer and have been battling for the last 6 years.  I have had 5 reoccurances now and my current chemo treatment is no longer working.  My wonderful oncologist has given me some options and i am thinking of giving radiation a crack.  I have neve had it before and was told the side effects are fatigue, nausea, and weight loss.  Are there other side effects?  Is it a long process?  I currently have chemo fortnightly and i'm in the hospital for about 4 hours.  I don't know how long radiation lasts each time.  I am really in never never land with this one and would love any advice or knowledge on the subject.

Thank you

Roselee

[Jane1]

Hi,

I have not had radiation treatment yet, I will be starting next year. But, the other day in the Shirley Shuttle I met a lady who was 78 years old and was in her fifth week. She  goes every day except on the weekends.  She said that she does get tired and that was why she was not driving. I found her remarkable and inspiring.

[Roselee]

Thank you for your response.  I have now finished the radiation and for me it was truly horrible.  Not the actual radiation itself, that was 35 seconds with no pain at all.  It was the position of my tumour on my spine that made it near impossible to lay on my back perfectly still for the 15 minutes it took to prep me for the radiaion.  I ended up needing to be on Happy Gas to get through it, and then be monitored for half an hour afterwards.  I know it has worked on the pain factor, as the amount of pain killers I need had decreased significantly, but whether or not it has put the tumour back to sleep (so to speak) I will find out next week when I get the results of my PET scan.  It has been 6 years this Australia Day weekend, and I am tired, really tired.  I think getting on with life helps the mind if nothing else.  My next bout of treatment though will be the test for me personally.  I just wish all my fellow survivors that please know you are never alone in this battle, and there are always others going through the same thing, that we can call on and chat.  Sometimes you just need to talk to someone who really understands.  Have strength  xxx

[CaptainAustrali]

For a head & neck cancer, I had 35 radiation treatments over 7 weeks (ie 5 days a week), and 3x chemotherapy treatments, high dose - requiring overnight hospitalisation.

The radiation was a breeze .. I mean, it was claustrophobic, uncomfortable, and because of a saliva/mucous problem really really hard to tolerate ... but big picture .. it was a breeze .. you go there, you do the awkward and uncomfortable treatment and you finish .. knowing that there's just 35, you can just kinda tick them off .. you know, like a kid counting or a person in prison or stranded on an island ...

.... I   (one) ..... I (two) .... and when you have a stack of four ... IIII, you cross through with a diagonal slash ... /

Do that 7 times and you're all good.

I don't mean to trivialise or minimise it ... but it's your way of fighting cancer, fighting for life .. I'd urge you to dive into that, treat it as a boxer would an upcoming prize-fight ... get through it, do well ...

And good luck - I hope you win 🙂