Day #10

Wow! I applied the same technique today and to my amazement the diarrhea stopped altogether. This means that I am lucky enough to have been able to suck my bowels high enough out of the way so the radiation does not touch it any more. I will have to discuss this with my doctor, but logically I cannot see any problem with it. I had everything taken out, basically they are radiating the pelvic floor, where the cervix used to be. There is nothing else left there that I would potentially "suck away" together with the bowels.

Now, this does not mean that I am totally symptom free. I still have coming and going pelvic pain, like during a period. Also, if I get frisky and overdo things physically, occasionally I have a wave of loosing my strength, making me feel like a collapsing tower of cards. If I lie down, I can recover in a few minutes

Day #9

I had an idea today and I decided to give it a try. It is obvious that the inflammation of the bowels was getting gradually worse. So I was thinking of ways to get those bowels somehow out of the way. When I got ready for the session, I decided to "suck" the lower part of my abdomen higher. I exhaled, pulled the diaphragm upward and used the muscles of my lower abdomen to try to push the bowels up, out of the way. Whether it is as a result of this action or a coincidence, later in the day the frequency of my BMs improved I will try to do the same tomorrow to see if this really works.

Day #8

Nothing new today. Everything more or less the same as yesterday. Maybe a bit more tired... but that could also be because all this week I have my sessions at 7:50 in the morning, which means that I have to be up by 6:45 to drink the prescribed amount of water so I will arrive with a full bladder. And getting up this early is a bit too early for me... I am a night owl by nature. :)

Day #7

The most dramatic development today was the slowly rolling-in diarrhea. It still isn't of a liquid consistency, it is more of a soft stool, but it comes in explosive batches mixed with gas, and quite often. At least ten of them today. The result is a sore anal area, for which the best treatment is to wash after every BM.

Another development is that elimination, both nr 1 and 2, are a bit painful, just like it used to be during my periods. So I just "let go", trying not to push. Otherwise I am still not tired or nauseous. I can still go about my daily business as usual, as long as I am in the vicinity of a washroom...

Day #6

The sessions seem to be getting even shorter, just one buzz from each of the four angles. It makes me worried, though, that given the total prescribed amount of radiation, each buzz must now equal twenty of the shorter buzzes of the eight angle sessions. I would have liked to discuss this with the doctor today, but he was very much behind. Even after I was told that I am next and was ushered into an examination room, I still had to wait over half an hour for my turn. He asked about the side effects, and he said that he was happy that I still did not develop nausea and diarrhea. Then, after a few sentences, he stood up, said good bye and left.

From the technician girls I found out that we are using intensity modulated therapy, that the linear accelerator produces high energy x-rays which then "sterilizes" the area the radiation covers.

After the session I did have the low abdominal pain again, and a funny feeling in the vaginal area, a cobwebby sensation as if the vagina became very dry, which of course is not the case. The sensation lasted about an hour, gradually diminishing. I also had several bowel movements over the day, looser than normal, even though I do not take milk of magnesia the night before any more.

Day #5 and Weekend #1

I had the last session of the week on Friday afternoon. The new set of angles made quite a bit of difference in the side effects. It is obvious that having a wider area irradiated creates more collateral damage. I developed a low, rumbling abdominal pain, something not unlike an oncoming period. The effects of the bowels manifest not so much in loosened stool but an increase in gas. Today (Sunday) I embarrassed myself by passing a little whistle during dinner, at the table... I had to reach for something across the table and... oops...

But the biggest problems are a) I am tired and b) I don't seem to be able to get rid of the food sensitivity problem that I developed after the CT scan. I am definitely sensitive to gluten, but today, for example, I did not have any wheat, yet I have quite a dramatic attack. Just like during the reaction to the dye, both my arms, the outsides, are covered with bubbly hives, and the same for the front area of my neck. We are out of Benadryl, so I took a Reactine, but it did not do much. I am still scratching furiously as we speak.

Tomorrow I have a session scheduled with my oncologist and I will bring the issue up, although I did talk about this to him on Thursday and he did not seem to know what to say.

Day #4

A new development today. My oncologist called me into his office to let me know that they change the administering of the rays from eight to four angles, but (as far as I understand) by using wider angles. He sounded a little fuzzy... I will see him again on Monday and will clarify some of my thoughts on the issue. For now I did not find anything specific about the benefits of some angles over others, just an article in The Journal of Medical Physics on intensity modulated therapy. But I also found a great factsheet at the National Cancer Institute, where they explain the whole radiation process in great detail with proper explanations. Yet, my questions are not answered there. Till Monday then...

Otherwise I am still all right, I did not have any nausea today (that earlier one was probably due to food issues), and no diarrhea yet, although I do seem to have a minor leakage problem. :)