Post Radiation

What type of radiation?
What type of radiation did your husband undergo? A fairly common side effect for certain types of radiation is rectal bleeding. A procedure where they go inside the colon and cauterize the areas that are bleeding is the common remedy. Good luck and please ask your doctor about the surgical cauterization procedure which can be a fairly easy fix for this side effect.

After treatment at Loma
After treatment at Loma Linda U- 15 proton/24 radiation- we were told at our exit meeting that under no circumstances were we to allow anyone do any cuttings or biopsies in the colon. That it would take 5 yrs for the colon to recover from radiaiton and if cut it would be like a paper cut on the figer- their illustration- that never quit heals up and leads to chronic diarrhea that could last a long, long time.

I had some bleeding at the end of rad- but hardly any after. Radiation ended for me back on Jan 15.

odysseus said:

radiation
going to see the doctor tomorrow...wondering if just the seeds will do the trick. Have a 4.5 PSAand a 7 Gleason. Both the seeds and radiation I think will be overkill? and more side effects?

radiation proctitis
Rectal bleeding is a rather common side effect of any form of radiation. I did proton therapy, and they told us it could happen after a year or so. At least in proton therapy, they want to make certain they treat the prostate bed as well as the prostate itself. They don't want something "coming back," like some experience with surgery. That means some of the beam will hit the anterior wall of the rectum, regardless of whether they use a balloon or saline in the rectum during treatment. For some men, the rectal wall is a bit thinner than for others. In the process of "revascularization," when the rectum is healing itself, there are lots of microscopic blood vessels that can easily get irritated, hence cause bleeding. I am being treated for that as we speak (1.75 yrs out of treatment). I am using a suppository at night called "Canasa." It basically works to stem the inflammation in the rectum. If that doesn't work long term, I will probably do laser cauterization.

Like the fellow from Loma Linda, they told us to get all over our G.I. doc if we were to have a colonoscopy. In fact, they wanted to send a very specific letter to him as to what he could and couldn't do, because the tissue is so friable. That's exactly what I did, and my G.I. doc "got it." In the pictures he took, the anterior wall of my rectum looks sort of like rosacia on one's face, i.e. spider webs of tiny little blood vessels. I'm working with a Naturopath to make sure everything "going through" is easy on the rectum.

Hope that helps!

Trew said:

Just another side effect-
Just another side effect- some of us (me) have had some bowel irregularities from radiaiton. My rad ended on Jan 15,2010. I am still having instances when I need to get to a toilet in a few minutes or else.

things are not what they used to be- that is for sure.

POST RADIATION
JUST FINISHED 38 IMRT SESSIONS JUNE 3RD. HAD DIVINCI ON FEB-12TH. SO FAR SO GOOD. NO REAL SIDE EFFECTS OTHER THAN A LITTLE URGENCY AND EVEN THAT HAS TAPERED OFF. I TOO WAS INFORMED THAT SIDE EFFECTS CAN COME YEARS LATER BUT I'LL DEAL WITH THAT IF AND WHEN THEY ARISE. IN THE MEANTIME I'LL TAKE MY 0 PSA AND TRY TO ENJOY LIFE UNTIL THE NEXT PSA IN AUGUST !!