Stage 3b Anal Cancer

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  • sephie
    sephie Member Posts: 650 Member
    #62
    mp327 said:

    shamayim

    You are right, it doesn't seem to be standard practice to shield the vaginal canal during radiation.  One exception that I know of is at MD Anderson, where they insert a vaginal dilator for each radiation treatment.  I wish I had known about all of this prior to my treatment, but I did not, and my rad onc never addressed the subject.  Thanks for the info.

    Martha

    md anderson learned after 2009 to place dilator

    martha ,,, you are correct that md anderson places the dilator in women, now .... back in 2009 when i was being radiated they did not do that.....my vagina closed up and scar tissue pretty severe... at that time, they forgot to even give me a dilator,,, i remembered someone telling me i would need one after tx so i asked for one about 2 months after tx ended ....they had dialtors in their supply area so i got them immmediately.....my radiation team asked a lot of great questions to help future patients , so  i stressed to them to be sure every female patient got these and also the special squirt bottles that they had given me....i am not sure when they started placing the dialtor in the vagina during radiation but it also helps to move the bladder out of the radiation field..... i have radiation damage to bladder so a great development in tx..... sephie

  • EvelynB
    EvelynB Member Posts: 72
    #63
    tallorder5793 said:

    Yes

    During radiation I had chemotherapy. It was less than what I had been doing prior to radiation, however. I did smaller amounts of 5fu and taxol, if memory serves.

    tall order

    Good luck on your scans next week.

  • tallorder5793
    tallorder5793 Member Posts: 67
    #64
    EvelynB said:

    tall order

    Good luck on your scans next week.

    Thank you!

    Thanks.

  • EvelynB
    EvelynB Member Posts: 72
    #65
    lizdeli said:

    Evelyn and Jackie

    I apologize for confusing your names!  So sorry.  That's what I get for trying to catch up after being away from the board for too long. 

    Evelyn, I think you might want to seek a second opinon about the precautionary follow up chemo recommendation since it doesn't seem to be a protocol others have experienced.  I do know someone who had rectal cancer vs. anal cancer who had follow up chemo. Do you know how many cases of anal cancer your oncologist has dealt with?  It's your body and your life so you have every right to ask these questions.

    As far as anything I have personally done...throughout the treatment process I became a germophobic.  I wouldn't touch any door knobs, avoided small children and large crowds, washed my hands constantly, only used paper towels to dry my hands, rinsed my mouth with baking soda 3 plus times a day, etc.. I tried to avoid infection.  I was very fortunate and I did not experience any infections, blood levels that would prevent/delay chemo, mouth sores, etc.  The side effects of the chemo and radiation weren't pleasant by any means.  Particularily the radiation.  I re-read Viktor Frankl's book - Man's Search for Meaning - during treatment and worked very hard to strenghten my mind and train it to overcome the challenges during treatment.  I remember memorizing how many minutes and seconds each turn of the radiation machine took.  There were a total of 13 "turns" and I knew exactly how long each each one was. One time the radiation tech told me I was done.  I said, "no I am not, it was only 12 versus 13".  He said yes you are.  Okay, so I get dressed and before I got to the door he tells me, "You were right".  So we had to set up all over again for the last "turn" of the machine which was 1 minute and 16 seconds.  

    I lost a lot of weight during treatment and I'm not big to start with.  So after the nutritionist actually yelled at me and told me to eat whatever it took, I did.  I ate what I could tolerate.  McDonald's plain cheeseburgers, vanilla ice cream, gingerale and Greek cookies.  Lived on that for 3 months.  Didn't gain, didn't lose much more weight.  

    Most of all - I went into "fight mode".  I also relied heavily on my faith which I feel helped tremendously.

    I hope that your doctor provides the answers you need.  Wishing you well.

    Liz

    Liz

    I just wanted to let you know I just finished reading "Man's search for meaning" and it is sooo inspiring! I recommend that to everyone but especially people going through cancer. Thanks for sharing.  

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