When you go into the radiation room to start radiation therapy for cancer you really do not know what to expect. You see this room with thick lead walls all the way around you, a giant machine that rotates around you and a metal table that you lay on. With testicular cancer they place you belly up on this table and put the lead egg on the testicle and penile area to protect it from the radiation. They line up the radiation machines guiding lights with the tattoos that you now have and then they go out and hide behind the lead walls and you hear a little humming like an XRAY machine and a few minutes later it is all done.
It really feels like you are getting an X-ray for the first week or so you don’t even notice that anything is actually happening. A week or two into it you start noticing light sunburn like redness on the radiated area. Now with testicular cancer they radiate your abdomen so your stomach and intestines get radiated. This makes you very nauseous and difficult to keep food from going up or staying in if you know what I mean.
If you ever have to do radiation on your abdomen make sure that you ask for a high dose Imodium type medicine you will need it. No matter where you have radiation you will want to go to your local pharmacy and get Aloe Vera lotion like you use for a sunburn it really does help.
About 4 weeks into the treatment you will start feeling run down. You will be tired and thinking why am I so tired? I mean all you are doing is laying there and getting zapped so why is it that the fatigue is so incredibly bad. All you want to do is sleep and that is pretty much all you do. Even when the treatments are over you still need a few weeks to regain your energy.
Use this time to recover and get your strength back do not try to fight it if your body is telling you to rest then rest.