Will pause in radiation treatment affect the outcome?

Just my comments here. I only received 28 RT THERAPY treatments. DONE. I had ZERO butt problems. Cuz the docs injected SPACE OARS jelly in front of the rectum/ colon. Every three months I get TRELSTAR injection in my butt. so .., PSA is < .01. Hope this helps. Had stage 4 PC from agent orange.

Did you actively decide not to get something like spaceor or bioprotect? Did you have the discussion with Your radiation oncologist about margins and types of radiation machines to minimize exposure of healthy tissue? Did your doctor offer five Radiation doses or were you not qualified for it?

@deemoy1, I hope the pause in radiation helped ease the inflammation. How are you doing? Have you resumed radiation?

My husband is on 28 of 38 planned treatments. He is also having a difficult time. His RO gave him a medrol dose pack which helped a bit and has now extended it with 5 additional days of dexamethasone. He also uses hyaluronic suppositories, Imodium and bentyl and literally a no fiber diet. He is on a 4 treatments per week schedule at this point. Hopefully this will allow him to complete but we may have to pause if he can’t tolerate it. Let us know what you hear about the effects of pausing on treatment outcome. I will keep you in my prayers. This is an awful illness.

@shihtzu124, how is your husband doing? How are you doing?

Struggling to get to the end. RO says he is one of the rare individuals who is ultra sensitive to radiation. They have given him steroids , omeprazole, immodium, bentyl and dietary modifications. This has been much more difficult that the RP in 2019 which he recovered from without a hitch. one more week. It has been difficult to watch him go from totally aymptomatic, athletic and active but with a rising PSA/BCR to the current state of significant discomfort several hours per day, with several hour long painful recurrent BM episodes and much of the night up to the bathroom which leaves him drained and exhausted. He seems to improve some on his no radiation days. He was so bad this week his RO insisted that he take tomorrow off so he can make it through next week. Of course that leaves me with anxiety that the effectiveness has been diminished but I guess that worry is for another day. He is between a rock and a hard place. :0(

What your husband is experiencing is the same thing that I experienced although my bouts with diarrhea didn’t start until around 6-9 months after my 40th treatment. During my treatments and immediately thereafter my symptoms were sporadic and minimal. My RO said they were normal reactions to the treatments.
The cause of mine was determined to be radiation proctitis and I was given 40, two hour treatments in a hyperbaric chamber in a wound treatment center. Although I was not bleeding, the damage to the blood vessels by radiation was the cause of my bathroom issues. The hyperbaric treatments reduced my symptoms by about 70% but I still had days where I couldn’t leave the house.
I was advised to use 2mg loper-amide and 125mg simethicone (available in a single pill OTC) 4 times a day. I experimented and found that a morning and evening dose seemed to be best for me. During active bouts I used Pepto Bismal. I also added a 250mg Simethicone pill each night to keep my gas issue on an even keel while sleeping.
But, just recently, my PCP put me on Ozempic for cardio and A1C issues. One of the unknown benefits of that medication is it slows down the digestive process which gives my body time to better handle the waste process. As a result I am very close to normal and my quality of life has improved incredibly.

I would recommend that you and your husband discuss the hyperbaric treatments with your doctors and then see if you can get your insurance to buy into the Ozempic prescription.

In any case, I know what you are going through and I am truly sorry that what we hope will be a cure causes this type of problem. I’ve had three types of cancer starting in 1996. I am 73 and still here because I do what you are doing to find alternative treatments and practices. God bless an best of luck.