From: nospam@nospam.net
(You smiled, you spoke, and I believed)
I had my brachytherapy on Nov 21, 2005.
Have recovered well, but, I am having severe problems urinating at
night.   It is very, very, painfull getting flow started, and keeping
it going. I am getting up about every hour or hour &1/2.
I have tried every trick I can think of to get flow started: turning
water on
wetting hand
rubbing tip of penis w water,
walking about
but, I still have excruciating pain until the flow starts, then it
subsides some, but I cannot keep the flow going. BTW, I have to stand,
sitting does not work at all.
I am taking flow max twice a day.
during the day, I drink coffee and it is a lot easier, although I go the
bathroom quite often, and I have very short warning.
I am an attorney, and I always inform the Judge of my problem, so that I
can quickly excuse myself and leave.
Any ideas?
The doctor said it is normal, and would decrease w time.
j.

hi j. - what you are describing are some of the more common effects from
radiation.

your body got a heavy dose of radiation and that area is protesting by
swelling up from being injured.  

but like all injuries, they will settle down.  but in the meantime, it
plays hell on your life.

i would like to remind you that it normally takes a lot longer to
recover than what you've indicated.  radiation takes time for the
results to be shown.  you will probably have some effects for 6 months
to a year.  

how's your energy level?   that's seems to be another common side
effect..... lower energy.

maybe the doctor can change the meds a little bit to help with the
urination.

best of luck.

~ curtis

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional    
"Many more men die with prostate cancer than of it. Growing old is
invariably fatal. Prostate cancer is only sometimes so."
http://community.webtv.net/PALMER_ENT/doc

Did they give you Pyridium and Decadron along with the Flomax????  
The dietician at Inova told me to cut out the coffee for 3 months
after seeding.  I did that.

Pyridium - Phenazopyridine 200 mg,  dyes the pee orange and takes
the sting away.

Decadron - Dexamethasone 4 mg, a steriod that helps you pee by
reducing swelling of the urethra and prostate.

The worse of the blockage was at the 4-6 week point for me.  I was
off the Pyridium and the Decadron BUT at the advice of the
rad-nurse, I kept 6 Decadron tabs "just in case".

I was taking 1 Flomax and 2 Aleve.  Getting up every 1.5 to 2 hours
to go.   Having to go every couple hours during the day.  I mean,
REALLY go.  My desk is 20 feet from the men's room so it
wasn't an issue.

Once about the 2nd or 3rd month, I forgot to take the Flomax and
Aleve for a couple days and suddenly felt the faucet slam shut.  I
started taking it again and did so for 6 months total.

The "going" was almost normal at the 6th month.   In that, I could
sleep through the night.  It sorta went like this:

Month 1 - getting up every 1 to 2 hours.
Month 2 - getting up every 3 hours
Month 3 - getting up every 4 hours
Month 4 - getting up every 5 hours
Month 5 - getting up every 6 hours
Month 6 - sleeping through the night but having to go right away
when I got up.

After 12 months, I am able to drink 20 ounces of water before going
to bed.   When I go, I can hit the far wall, oh, 3 or 4 feet away.  

I'm at 15 months and there is still some stinging but all I take is
1 Aleve at night.    

-C

After my Brachy, I found it best to sit in a hot bath three times a days for
relief and simply urinated in the tub.

I had HDR brachytherapy which is different because you get
all the radiation in a big dose instead of slowly over time, so my
experience might differ from yours.

I had the same problems.  The most acute period lasted about
6-8 weeks, then gradually began to get better.  I took two Flowmax
pills (don't recall the number of milligrams) a day.  I also took a
fair amount of ibuprofen for its anti-inflammatory qualities.  I
also found standing up to be necessary in order to urinate.

I presume the pain you're experiencing is the pressure from
the overfull bladder.

I wish I could tell you some trick to solve the problem that you
haven't tried, but I can't think of one, unless it's to try
gourd_dancer's
approach - which has to be inconvenient at night.  Conceivably an
ice pack applied to the perineum would help a bit - though I'm
sure it wouldn't be very much.  I would stand up, dance, pee a bit,
go to bed, get up again and do it all over, about 7 times per night.

The good news is that this really is pretty common and, for most
of us, it really does go away.  Mine started to get better after about
8 weeks, but it was about 4-5 months before I got completely off
Flowmax.

   Alan

Not attempting to sound glib here but what you are describing may not be a
physical thing. Most male kids entering puberty have problems peeing and
even keeping on peeing when started when going to a public urinal for
example. I suspect you may be anticipating the pain and thus not relaxing
enough.

I know this sounds ridiculous but due to prostate problems of one sort or
another for a long time, I use a basic diversion on myself. I think of
something that takes my mind off it when peeing and it works. Takes some
work to get it all working OK but it gets there.