Hi Fred!  Or is it Herb?

You'll be fine.  Literally, you will go there, lay on a table, and get up 20
minutes later and walk out.  It is an absolutely painless process.  I even
fell asleep a couple of times.

However, there are eventual and longer lasting side effects to be wary of
and to minimize.  These may include fatigue, diarrhea, and something that
feels like urinary tract infection.  To combat these, even before I started
my treatments, I walked 3-5 miles a day, 3-5 days a week.  I drank gallons
of water.  I slept and extra hour every night.  I had all three, but they
were all minimal.

I'm beginning my fourth week (of 8) on Monday.  As the man who jumped off the
20 story building said as he passed the 11 floor: "So far, so good."

I have had zero prompt side effects, however time will tell.  I live near the
hospital, drive myself, and spend less than an hour each day from the time I
leave home until the time I return.  The whole thing is done by technicians
who seem quite bored and, I fear, therefore less than rigorous in the
alignment procedure.  In my case, the treatment is preceded by a CAT scan
every day so that, theoretically, they can adjust for any movement of the
prostate.  However, I suspect that any such fine adjustments are rendered
superfluous by the coarse error due to technicians manhandling me into
position.  In fact, I'd be surprised if the accumulated error introduced by
all the discrete elements of the process in any way justifies their claim of
"1 mm accuracy".

Yesterday they accidentally left one of the "cross hair" stickers on me which
they are supposed to put over the tattoos that they pierced into me for
reference.  When I got home and peeled it off, the ink from the tattoo had
bled into the adhesive showing clearly that the tattoo was at least 2-3 mm
outside of the "cross hairs".  Close enough for government work, I suppose.

The doctor in charge of the treatment bragged that "we write all our own
software" (for confining the beam to the target area).  I'm sure he meant
that to impress me but, having spent part of my career in software
development and written code myself, I am not sanguine.

Had the treatment design been left to me, I would have done things
differently but there is only so much you can control.  In the final analysis
all you can do is roll the dice.

Your question only having to do with your ability to drive yourself, I think
you will have no difficulty at all.  Your exposure time sound a little long,
however; mine was for seven weeks, 35 or maybe 36 exposure periods.  You
will probably experience fatigue or extreme tiredness as the time passes and
you may experience the loss of some pubic hair (I did).

Ken Bland

I want to thank everyone for their kind advice.

Much appreciated.

Herb

I only had 5 weeks of radiation as adjuvant to brachytherapy,
but during those five weeks I drove to the clinic, got the radiation,
went on to drive to work, worked a full day, and drove home.

I think you'll be okay.

   Alan

.

I'm in final week of 8 weeks of IMRT, and I'm sure if you can drive 10
miles now, you'll have no problem with driving during the treatment.

(Another) Fred!