My whole case was transferred over to a consultant clinical oncologist at the Royal Marsden to plan the chemo-radiation treatment. I’m incredibly fortunate to have people at the very peak of cancer research looking after me. I have always felt at complete ease around all of my doctors, they’re a real credit to our health system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, I was given an appointment card and turned up to the first session.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This one takes a bit longer than all the others as they double check all the planning. There’s always a couple of scans to check everything out and double check the calculation.  The radiotherapy itself is all over in about 40-60 seconds, and some days you can be in and out in ten minutes.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of really important things to remember about radiotherapy is to drink plenty of water, as it\u2019s a giant tanning machine and will dry you out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, find a really good cream.  I used aveeno.  With all that water, comes a lot of peeing and if you\u2019re having any kind of groin area radiotherapy, go to the toilet before you lay down. They\u2019ll only send you away for a pee if they discover you\u2019ve got a full bladder after the scan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything was going just fine until session 19. I was getting on ok with the disruption, the weird swellings, and the change in skin colour etc. But, by this point all of the hair in the general area of my groin had been burnt off and my entire fun zone was a gentle shade of mahogany. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not sure there\u2019s really much you can do to prevent some of the side effects. Radiotherapy is almost certainly going to have an effect on the lymphatic system. The skin discolouration does hang around for a while too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being hit with the big rays every day does knock it out of you a bit, and the more the treatment went on, the more I’d need a nap! Remembering to drink plenty of water and apply the cream was the big thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you get the moist skin desquamation?  Grit your teeth, it\u2019ll be over in no time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“you lay down, it takes about a minute and you won’t feel a thing” Just hold on, because that’s only really half true. I\u2019m not sure how many radiotherapy machines they have at The Royal Marsden. It\u2019s a lot though! Between the two sites, they will almost certainly operate the largest radiotherapy facility in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hide_page_title":"","_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,10,11,17,8,16],"class_list":["post-509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-penile-cancer-information","tag-lymph-nodes","tag-lymphedema","tag-nhs","tag-penile-cancer-treatment","tag-radiotherapy","tag-the-royal-marsden"],"yoast_head":"\n