In preparation for the upcoming radiation treatment, I have been reading up on the side effects. I don't know if this is a good or a bad thing to do, or maybe a little of both. I want to know what the possibilities are, but I don't want to set an expectation that these things will happen to me, or worry that they might. I don't want to start imagining I have a problem that I don't really have.
There are short and long term side effects. Some of the short term side effects are fatigue, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, hair loss in the area of treatment, sexual changes, urinary and bladder changes, and skin changes.
Fatigue is apparently fairly common during radiation. It can last from 6 to 12 months after the treatment, or for the rest of your life, or in this case, my life. Doctors can prescribes psycho-stimulants, or uppers, for rest-of-the-life fatigue. That doesn't sound good to me. I tried uppers when I was in college and had to drive back from Wisconsin to Kentucky one night to get to class the next day. As I was driving, I woke up my roommate - who should have been awake anyway, so she could talk to me and keep me alert! - because I thought I saw a moose on the highway. Instead of taking uppers again, I may just opt to lie on the couch and watch movies 24/7 with my dogs. One website suggested finding a support group to discuss how to manage fatigue. Won't we all be too tired to show up or come up with any ideas? One suggestion to combat fatigue was to exercise.
Diarrhea should be interesting with the colostomy. I may need to buy some heavy "doody" ostomy bags that are thicker and longer, so I don't end up like the Sorcerer's Apprentice. The website I read from suggested eating 6 small meals a day. I am going to look into adding a small frig and some shelves in the bathroom near the toilet, although the jogging from the kitchen to the bathroom might be good exercise for my fatigue. The website suggested that I take care of my rectal area. Thanks for the advice, but it's been taken care of already.
Nausea and vomiting, I am familiar with after my two rounds of TIP chemo. I have vomit bags in every room, and like a nurse, I will be able to measure what goes in the bags because of the handy pre-printed measurements on them. Nausea and vomiting can occur 30 minutes to many hours after the radiation. Luckily, it says that I will most likely feel better on days that I don't have radiation. Another reason to look forward to the weekends!
Hair loss is one side effect that I don't need to worry about, at least on my head. You can't lose what you don't have. However, since the radiation will be on my groin, I may end up with a bonus side effect of a free Brazilian wax job without the wax or the expense! But, that part of my anatomy is not exactly in view anymore, since, one, I wear clothes in public, and two, the ostomy bag hangs over it. Another website I viewed mentioned that if you had radiation on your groin, you might lose your "public" hair, but I think they meant "private."
The sexual changes take many forms, one of which is a smaller, shorter, narrower vagina. Women can become infertile, go through early menopause, have vaginal dryness or atrophy, or lose interest in sex. One of the reasons they lose interest in sex is because it hurts like hell now that they have a small, dry, short, narrow, atrophied vagina with incredibly thin walls. Mine even has a tumor (or maybe not!) and a fistula to add to the chaos in the tunnel of love. Several websites mentioned a "dilator" that can be used to stretch the vagina walls. Apparently, you keep getting larger sizes until you've reached the size that will accommodate your herculean partner, or your herculean doctor's hand. Radiation can't touch me on most of those issues, because I'm already there. However, my radiation oncologist has already warned me that he will need to do a pelvic exam after the radiation is over, and "unfortunately, it will really hurt." That's one appointment, I may not show up for. At the least, he should give me some muscle relaxers to take beforehand. We're talking Dr. Funkinated with blood up to his elbows after he does a pelvic exam with his massive hands!
Urinary and bladder changes include burning or pain while or after urinating, trouble starting to urinate, trouble trying to empty your bladder, needing to urinate frequently, cystitis, incontinence, urinating frequently during the night, blood in the urine, bladder spasms which are like painful muscle cramps. These all seem rather straight forward, and for now, I'm going to hope that they won't be radiating me near my bladder. As it is, I am sometimes getting up 3 times a night to pee. I think that's enough.
The last short term side effect we will discuss has to do with the skin, which is our largest organ. My largest organ is a lot more wrinkly and saggy than it once was. Radiation will make it even more so! Plus, it will become even less elastic. Apparently, there is a race going on between my largest organ and my small, short, narrow vagina to see which one can age quicker and become more useless. Radiation can cause the skin to have the look and feel of a sunburn. It can cause itching that makes a person scratch so much that he/she/me develops infections. The skin can become so dry that it peels just like it does when the skin is sunburned. A person's skin can peel off faster than it can grow back which will result in ulcers or sores. The skin can become wet, sore, or infected. One website said to take lukewarm showers, wear soft clothing, and stay out of the sun and tanning booths (I wondered if people would really need to be told that and realized that there are some who would, and possibly some who would still go to a tanning booth.) It also said "do not wear clothes that are tight and do not breathe." Why not just follow the last suggestion, stop breathing and bypass having radiation and getting any of its side effects?
Our next topic will be the possible long term side effects of radiation. Two of the more exciting side effects are secondary cancer and death! I think we can all agree that death would be a very long term side effect of radiation.
Of course everyone's experience is different. I didn't have chemo beforehand, so I can't compare side effects. But I worked full time during by 5 day/wk, 5 wk radiation and only took off one day from fatigue. I had no nausea or diarrhea. I did have some skin breakdown, but with a few rounds of topical treatment, the skin healed. I hope for this kind of result and success for you!
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