Radiotherapy can make you feel tired and alcohol can make this worse. It is important not to drive or operate machinery if you feel tired or dizzy. Ask your doctor or radiographer if you are not sure whether you can drink alcohol.
Avoid raw vegetables and fruits, and other hard, dry foods such as chips or pretzels. It's also best to avoid salty, spicy or acidic foods if you are experiencing these symptoms. Your care team can recommend nutrient-based oral care solutions if you are experiencing mucositis or mouth sores caused by cancer treatment.
When you wash, use only lukewarm water and mild soap. Don't wear tight clothing over the treatment area. It's important not to rub, scrub or scratch any sensitive spots. Also avoid putting anything that is very hot or very cold—such as heating pads or ice packs—on your treated skin.
It is important to rest and take care of yourself during radiation therapy. Consider these ways to take care of yourself: Plan for extra rest. Eat a balanced diet.
Skin changes usually occur one to two weeks after your treatment begins and may last one to two weeks after your last treatment. You may shower or bathe throughout your radiation therapy. Your nurse will recommend a mild soap for you to use. It is important to keep skin folds clean and dry.
The radiation doesn't travel very far from the treatment area. So it is usually safe to be with other people. However, as a precaution you will need to avoid very close contact with children and pregnant women for a time.
Most side effects go away within 1–2 months after you have finished radiation therapy.
The side effects of radiotherapy usually peak up to two weeks after treatment has finished. The effects of radiotherapy continue developing, and it may take a further couple of weeks to several months for you to feel normal, depending on the area of the body that has been treated.
Most people start to feel tired after a few weeks of radiation therapy. This happens because radiation treatments destroy some healthy cells as well as the cancer cells. Fatigue usually gets worse as treatment goes on.
For example, a patient receiving radiation therapy may be fatigued during the day and take extended naps. During active treatment, this can be helpful. But they may develop a habit of continuing to take naps, which can affect their ability to fall asleep at night.
Daily preparation - CT and treatment
When you attend for your CT planning scan and daily treatment, your radiographers will ask you to empty your bladder. They will then ask you to drink 500ml of water. This helps to ensure you have a comfortably full bladder. It is important that you drink the water quickly.
Radiotherapy to your head and neck area can make you lose weight because you might have: a sore or dry mouth. a poor appetite. taste changes due to treatment.
As a result of these epidemiological studies, it was found that the mammary gland, skin, and colon, etc. are tissues and organs that are easily affected by radiation and develop cancer.
After surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy, extra protein is usually needed to heal tissues and help fight infection. Good sources of protein include fish, poultry, lean red meat, eggs, low-fat dairy products, nuts and nut butters, dried beans, peas and lentils, and soy foods.
Some cancers are difficult to treat and have high rates of recurrence. Glioblastoma, for example, recurs in nearly all patients, despite treatment. The rate of recurrence among patients with ovarian cancer is also high at 85%.
You may feel sick (nauseated), with or without vomiting, for several hours after each treatment. Your radiation oncologist may prescribe medicine (antiemetic) to take at home before and after each session to prevent nausea.
Radiotherapy with the aim of curing cancer usually lasts between 1 to 7 weeks. For radiotherapy to relieve symptoms, you might have anything between a single treatment to 2 weeks of treatment. It might be longer than this. Your doctor will tell you how many treatments you'll have.
Feeling very tired and lacking energy (fatigue) for day-to-day activities is the most common side effect of radiation therapy to any area of the body. During treatment, your body uses a lot of energy dealing with the effects of radiation on normal cells.
Radiotherapy side effects tend to get worse as you progress through your treatment. So you might not feel tired at the beginning of your course but might do towards the end and for a few weeks afterwards. It's impossible to predict who will feel tired during treatment, some do and others don't.
Reactions to radiation therapy often start during the second or third week of treatment. Or, they may last for several weeks after the final treatment. Some side effects may be long term. Talk with your treatment team about what you can expect.
Sometimes radiotherapy to the chest can cause you to feel and be sick (nausea and vomiting). This is because the treatment area might include part of the stomach. And radiotherapy to the stomach can cause nausea and vomiting.