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)_/¯

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’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.

I had CyberKnife treatment (5 consecutive days for 35 minutes) for advanced intermediate (Gleason score 3+4). They told me that the prostate sits atop a bubble of gas in the intestine, so I had to stay off of gas-producing foods like beans, cabbage, etc. during the treatment and take gas-X before the daily treatment. Also took a laxative and enema. By the 4th day I experienced burning during urination (lasted about 5 days) and intestinal problems for about the same period of time. After that, everything returned to normal for a teenage kid (I was 67 at the time.)

Hi, did you use SpaceOar Gel during treatments? Trying to get as much info as I can, my husband starts IMRT next month. Thanks

No, I did not.

When originally discussing with the urologist at the time of diagnosis, he suggested I get that if I was doing radiation for the primary / initial treatment. I went with surgery.

When the PSA started to rise, I went to radiation oncologist for salvage radiation treatments (39) and he (the radiation oncologist) didn't recommend it for that treatment.