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Jim volunteered to do a trial where they fill up his bladder before doing the proton beam treatment. He'll probably have to go before, during and after.
Replies to "Jim volunteered to do a trial where they fill up his bladder before doing the proton..."
@marlow2
This is standard procedure at UFPTI. When you do simulation (this procedure sets up a specialized bed for each patient and the parameters techs will use during actual treatments) e there they have you drink water 30 minutes prior to procedure. Then do low dose xray to monitor your bladder position with water and adjust drinking more up or down.
This is done to help move bladder away from prostrate and lesson the amount of radiation that bladder receives. They also look at Space/Oar to see it has moved the rectum down and away. If not they will use a baloon to do that before procedures.
Everyone is different and how they absorb water and time needed to do it, along with size of bladder ect. My plan revealed I needed to drink 12 oz of water 30 minutes prior to treatments.
Thus I would urinate prior to drinking the water and after treatment urinate again regardless of urged to do so as had a 45 minute drive home. This work out for me without any issues with urnination urges from drinking all the water and the increases in urnination and urges when doing radiation treatments.
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I did the five treatments at Mayo. They have you empty your bladder then drink a bottle of water before your treatment. With the five treatments you also get a rectal balloon to keep your prostate from moving while under the beam. After the first treatment and I knew what was going to happen I always asked the technicians "Ok which one of you drew the short straw today"? Holding a full bladder was the hardest part but five treatments was a piece of cake. I felt guilty ringing the bell. My 3 month and 9 month PSA's were undetectable. Good luck Jim.