Ron....."my Ron" had HDR brachytherapy last summer.  He had a bad reaction
to Flomax so that was out of the question.  All he took were painkillers for
a couple of days.  He never had your problem.  But cranberry juice is
something we women were told to use for bladder infections......it just
plain doesn't work!!  Never has, never will.  You might as well drink water.

Hi Ron,
I was originally set up for 25 IMRT and then seed implants (also am on HT).
About the 10th rad treatment I started getting the urine slowdown (much
worse at night). I have been taking 2 Flowmax plus saw palmetto, advil and
cran juice, etc. but there has been little improvement. The Drs now feel
that seeds would be too risky for me so I am getting 42 IMRT instead (6 more
to go). After the 10th treatment my URO did a cystoscopy and stretched the
uretha a little. I peed like a horse for about 3 days and went right back to
burning and dribbling again. I'm hoping it will ease up sometime after I
complete IMRT. Don't know if you had Ext Radiation before the seeds. The Drs
have told me that the effects of the radiation will continue for 4 - 6
months after the treatments are finished and during that time they don't
recommend any surgery on the prostate to "open things up" for fear that scar
tissue left will interfere with the action of the Rad treatments. My URO
also said that he could not do any corrective surgery if I had a seed
implant.
I know this is not encouraging news, but hopefully as the radiation from the
seeds decreases your flow will improve. The concentrated dose of RAD from
the seeds can cause swelling and this is probably what is happeneing to you.
I have started taking Pyridium 200mg 3 times a day and it seems to help the
flow a little and relieves the burning. It makes you pee Red and causes a
little dribble, but the stain comes out of clothing with a little bleach.
You might ask about it. I'm doing much better during tha day now and only
get up to dribble about 4 times instead of 6-8 times a night.
Wish you luck and improvement.
Age - 69
8/12/02 - PSA 3.7
10/13/03 - PSA 4.69
11/11/03 - PSA 4.8
11/18/03 - Biopsy - 10 cores
one core-25% of core-Gleason 4+4=8
all other cores benign tissue
12/10/03 - Consult - Oncologist
12/16/03 - Consult - Radiation Oncologist
Treatment Plan - Northeast Ga Cancer Center
HT - started 12/17/03 - Eulixen & Lupron (2nd 4 mo Lupron-4/26)
2/10/04 - Started - Flowmax and Megastrol
Radiation - IMRT to begin 3/30/04 - 42 treatments

Here's one suggestion for night time use.

Put a urinal (or jar or whatever) next to the bed.  If you
get any urge during the night, get up and try.  It may be
less disruptive to your sleep to urinate right by the bed
without having to walk over to the toilet.  If you can
dribble a little 6 or 8 times at night, that may be enough
to drain you out even though you don't get a good
satisfying rush of urine all at once.  I was doing about
7 per night for a week or so.  It was inconvenient, but
bearable.

You may be facing the worst of it right now.  I have
read that the initial reaction of tissue to radiation is
swelling, but that, over time, the swelling goes down
even when the radiation continues.

If you got Iodine 125 seeds, the radiation you are
receiving now is probably about 80-85% of what it
was when the seeds were first implanted.  In another
5 weeks it will be down to 50%.  If you got Palladium
seeds you're already below 50%.  So the problem
will get better.

You may have these problems for another 2 to 8
weeks.  Hopefully they will ease up after that.  I
was told by my radiation oncologist that these problems
do go away for all men.

If things get really bad, you may be able to get a
self-catheter kit that you can put in, drain, and take
out again in an emergency.

Another emergency treatment that worked for me
was a steroid anti-inflammatory.  You don't want to
take steroids on a regular basis, but they might get
you over a bad spot if necessary - without having
to catheterize.  You might ask your doctor if a
prescription for some kind of high potency steroidal
anti-inflammatory pills is okay for you if you only use
it when you absolutely have to.

   Alan

Thanks to those of you who offered helpful advice.  There has already
been some improvement, especially during the daytime. I'm hoping maybe
it was a one-day aberration.  I had palladium seeds implanted, so as
Alan pointed out, half the dosage has been delivered.  Ought to start
letting up at least a little.  I also managed to reach my rad onc who
is looking at prescribing a more potent alpha blocker.

I may have been fortunate, but I had virtually zero urination problems after
my seeds in 1999.  I did take my Flomax for the requisite number of weeks.

John Hanley
Brachytherapy: October, 1999
98 I-125 Seeds
Age at treatment: 62
Pretreatment PSA:  7.5
Gleason: 3+3 = 6
Most recent PSA: 0.2
------------------------------------------

My radiation onc thinks it's probably a bladder infection and is
putting me on an antibiotic.  (Diagnosed by telephone; it's a long
trip to his office.)