Any diet restrictions with radiation? What were your side effects?

The doctors at Georgetown recommended Cyberknife a couple of years ago, but said that treatment wasn't urgent so I stayed on active surveillance. When my PSA started going up again they recommended treatment with Cyberknife plus homone treatment with Orgovyx. When I asked why they were recommending hormone treatment now, but didn't recommend it two years earlier, they said the different was that Orgovyx was now available. They regard Orgovyx as superior to Lupron etc., in that it is better tolerated and has a faster recovery.
As to Cyberknife, suggest you look at some of the online videos about it. It is really amazing. 5 Cyberknife treatments are equivalent to 40 regular radiation sessions.

Thanks, with my salvage radiation, IMRT I guess? They didn't give me any restrictions, they just told me my bladder had to be as full as possible to protect my rectum. They also expected your rectum / bowels to be as empty as possible.

If your bladder was less than 65%, they wouldn't treat. Have you hang around and drink coffee / water / juice till the percentage came up.

Interesting. In my case, the bladder was supposed to be as empty as possible. No food or drink the morning of the treatment. Doesn't having the bladder full make it more of a target for stray rays?

They told me that the pee in the bladder kept the back end protected. I’m guessing radiation doesn’t pass through pee very well.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Did you have the SpaceOar gel pack to protect the rectum?

If that's for @web265 , the answer is no, it wasn't recommended for me and I asked about it before we started.

I didn't have surgery but went the Lupron/EBR route. Suggested I use a soft diet but didn't have any real restrictions. Told to expect bowel problems but never really did. I did have the gel pac and had to drink 40oz of water within an hour of radiation treatment. 9 months later I still "dribble" and have to go as soon as I have the urge.

I am still trying to figure out the "stray rays" issue, to quote edva1943, between Proton and MRI guided radiotherapy. I find very little on what happens to the radiation after it hits the Prostate. I understand with Proton, there is no real time MRI imaging so the margin area is larger but the radiation stops mostly at the Prostate but because of the margins I have heard side effects on the bowels may be greater even with spaceoar. If you have MRI guided radiotherapy, the margins are smaller because they see things better but the radiation I guess exits through the body affecting healthy tissue on the way out but the feedback I hear is the side effects are less. I cannot find any comparisons anywhere and I am not sure the doctors know enough yet.

I’m going to add my two cents here, I’ve had prostate cancer for 13 years and so I am experienced. My diet has drifted away from red meats or processed meats and consist of mostly vegetables, chicken, fish, eggs, etc. plus minerals and vitamins and larger doses. Plus prayer. my first time through radiation, 44 days, I was simply tired all the time and it took about two months to get my energy level back. The third time through radiation I had much larger doses and it’s going to take three or four months to get my energy level back . Plus, I’m on apaulutime (?). A unspoken side effect of Zytiga and Ebearla is that your body stores belly fat. So be careful and eat your vegetables.

During radiation treatments , I was told to stay from gassy foods and to have a full bladder right before the radiation treatment. Hope this helps. I had mine done in 2013. I had 39 treatments. Things might have changed by now.