Yesterday I had my appointment with the oncologist at Velindre. This time I met with a different doctor and the consultation was all about the radiotherapy that was the next item on my health agenda.
It very much started with, “here is the bad news”, with a
long list of the possible side effects which at first sight is pretty daunting:
fatigue, diarrhoea, urinary symptoms, PR bleeding, skin redness, changes to
bowel/bladder habit including small risk of incontinence, erectile dysfunction
and small chance of second malignancy. Of course, this needs to be set against
the impact of no treatment which is unthinkable. The doctor stressed that this
was an exhaustive list with most risks relatively short term. It does make you
think though!
He then explained the process I would follow. The first item
will be a CT scan at Velindre to accurately locate and mark the target areas
for the radiotherapy – in my case the tumours in the prostate and nearby lymph
nodes. This should be carried out in the next couple of weeks. This will also be
the planning session for the radiotherapy which will be discussed in detail.
The actual radiotherapy will follow a couple of weeks later.
While the delivery of the burst of radiation only takes about five minutes,
there is quite a lot of preparation before each treatment. This is all about
getting the bladder and bowels into a consistent condition and involves enemas
etc. Not looking forward to this! I will have a treatment every weekday for
four weeks along with a weekly review. There should be no problem for me to
drive myself there which makes things a bit simpler.
I asked about whether there would be a COVID 19 vaccination
available as all those trips to a hospital filled me with dread. Velindre had
actually started doing vaccinations that day and the doctor thought that I
might be contacted at some stage with an offer for this.
So there it is, the next stage looms large. How do I feel? I
must confess I am apprehensive about it – who wouldn’t be. One thing I do know is that I will feel mighty
relieved after it is completed. It is now my turn to find a way through it as
thousands of people have done before me.
It is just a case of “grin
and bear it”, or even, “grin and bare it”.
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