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How Important Is Having A Full Bladder During Radiation Treatment?
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Sep 26 10:38am | Replies (59)Comment receiving replies
“Full bladder” isn’t something that’s randomly done, nor is it something that’s to just be “…. encouraged by the techs.”
Coming out of the CT Simulation, you should’ve been informed exactly how many ounces of water to drink (and how many minutes) before each treatment.
(For me, that was just 18oz of water to drink just 30 minutes prior to each session. In the weeks leading up to my radiation treatments, I practiced every day. By the time of my first treatment, I had the routine down to a ritual. I never had problems holding that amount of water. It worked like clockwork every time and never caused an issue.)
It takes time for water you drink to make its way to your bladder - that time is different for each person (and you don’t really have to drink a lot), and should have been figured out at the time of your CT Simulation.
You should work this out with your radiation oncologist (or the nurse practitioner assigned to you), not with the tech guys.
Yes, it is absolutely necessary to have a full bladder during the procedure in order to both push the bladder and small bowel as possible away from the field of radiation and to keep other nearby organs and tissues in that area in the same location for each treatment. This needs to be done consistently and exactly the same way for each session.
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@brianjarvis Great comment and very helpful. I have been swinging back and forth in my treatments...Not enough or too much water, poor timing beforehand...although wait times in lobby have been fairly consistent. Your comments gave me the idea to do some tests at home ...drink at home and test for the optimal timing. Today I drank 30 ounces right before because the 24 ounces wasn't enough. I went to the hospital and they said my bladder was only half full but they did the treatment "ok" I guess. So, I think I will just do my home testing to correlate volume and timing as I don't recall or find any recommendations from my Simulation that were of any use to me.
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@brianjarvis Thanks you very much for sharing this Brian. Unfortunately, it does not appear that my medical team is as dutiful to what you've shared.
More worrisome is that the tech who could visibly see the imaging of the situation emphatically explained that the bladder was not full, but this morning when I receive a call from radiation oncology and bring this up, I am told that "it was full enough" to do the treatment.
So it goes from the imaging tech being concerned about it to the point of being bothered by it, to "well, it was full enough to do the treatment."
In my medical history, I've been a patient in endocrinology, orthopedics, primary care of course, and ophthalmology. Have never felt unsure about doctors in these departments.
But in radiation oncology, I find myself needing to "sleep with one eye open" if I take a nap in a chair there.