Today I'm breaking down my external beam radiation for the recent cancer treatment that I had gone through. And I'm so overwhelmed by the amount of people that have reached out, having a lot of conversations offline in DMs about people going through something similar or going through the same treatment but for a different treatment. uh, type of cancer. And it's, I kind of think, you know, well, I have been cleared of having cancer. I shouldn't be talking about it anymore. I'm sorry. I have hair on my mouth. If you're watching the video of this and it's annoying me. Um, but yeah, You know, just because the bulk of my treatment, well, now my treatment has stopped doesn't mean that my journey finishes. And when I was making my decisions, to be honest, I didn't have a lot of time to process what my initial treatment was because I found it really overwhelming. But I know that the information out there I feel is limited. And whilst this is not medical advice at all, I just want to go through the paperwork that I received and let you know the experience I've had. So if you're calling in for the first time, my name is Stacey and I'm the host of the Stacey M podcast. And today we're breaking down the external radiation experience that I had. So it's very difficult to say what side effects were a part of what. Usually the oncology departments would just pass the blame onto the other departments. So what I'm doing, if you can't see, I'm just holding up the sheets that I received. at the start of my treatment, just going down the pros and cons, I suppose, and what I had experienced. So I was stage three cervical cancer. It started at stage one, then went to two, and then finished at three, so one technically. And it's not that the cancer had grown that quickly in the timeframe. It was just as each result, as each test went, was coming back, it was just always bumping me up a stage based on the results for that. So but I had twenty five external beams in total. I started the week of Christmas in twenty twenty five. And we're nearly going on twelve months. Actually, the wheels were probably starting to fall off this time last year. So it's been probably twelve months since the wheels had even started to unknowingly fall off. I didn't know that's what the issue was at the time. But information overload, so when all this happens, so today is just specifically in relation to the external beam that I had. I have photos and videos up on my social media, which can be tagged in the show notes so you can see what the machine looks like, but it effectively looks like a really big egg beater. I suppose. And for me, I had twenty five external beam radiations in total. I was literally at the hospital like every single day, with the exception of most weekends. Sometimes I had to go back twice a day because I had double radiation and had to be six hour delay in between. And that was because it was over the Christmas period. So there were public holidays and everything. I'm going to go through what the sheets are and then hopefully I remember to go through the rest of the side effects that perhaps may not be there, but I'd be very open and I apologise if my kids are listening to this as well. So I had cervical or cervical cancer, so my treatment area was in the pelvis region, obviously, because that's where that stuff is. I don't know whether it's in here but I had three tattoos placed on me which I didn't know I was getting until the day of so the tattoo is to so they can line you up when you use the machine so I have one on each thigh at the top and then you can probably imagine where that third one is so I that was they're my first ever tattoos three radiation tattoos one on each thigh and one on the bits so not the tattoo I was uh imagining uh getting first but it's all right I call them my little survivor tattoos now so um but yes because when you go in for treatment I wasn't aware of this either I think until the first day that I went in but at least in my case I'm presuming probably prostate cancer would be the same you are literally dropping your ducks so you are laying on actually to go back a step they made beanbags so I don't know whether this is for all types of of cancel for all external beam I'm not sure but in my case I made like beam bags so I had to go in for molding I think that was the same day I got the tattoos so I had a beam bag made for my feet and then I had one for like my head and neck and I would have to uh lay there with no undies on so always remember I think I wore a dress the first day and I made sure I didn't do that going forward. So I always make sure I have a top and pants on. So laying there with no pants on with your legs in the bean bag and then my hands up as well in the right position. There's kind of like an electronic level, like, you know, as if they're trying to like what they use on building sites and stuff. And they line you up in accordance with the tattoos and the dimensions where they're meant to line you up. And you basically just have to lay there still while the egg beta goes around. Now, for me, it was around, it does two x-rays. So it goes around twice or three times for that. And I think in total, it went around three times for my treatment. And every time it went around, my eyes were closed. I just kept saying, I've healed, I have healed, I have healed. Like that was just what kept going around and around. They would select music for me so they would always know what would go for that good old nineties grunge. The downside of that is that sometimes you start singing and bopping along and you're not meant to move. So be very careful of moving because they are so specific with how you lie there so you don't fry your other bits. I did have to go in for a rescan at the end of week two because that was kind of like when the side effects started to happen. Towards the end of my external beam, my team were amazing. That was so great. I would probably maybe last week, two weeks, I would be going in saying, I don't know if I'm going to, shit myself piss myself vomit or do all three today like i was struggling towards the end i still were going in with like a really bright smile on my face but yeah i would be going in saying you know put that plasticky thing down because i don't know what way i'm going to go and they were always so reassuring if it happens it happens you're not the first you're not going to be the last Thankfully, it didn't happen, but I would have dealt with it if it did. But towards the end, I was starting to really struggle. At the start, it was happening pretty easy. I'm like, this is a walk in the park. You're in and you're out. Had my blue drink bottle that I knew I had to drink all of that. But the more radiation hits that part, the more the side effects start to hit. So my bits, like my organs, weren't lining up where they were. meant to be and that was pretty much between my blood and my femur so you know I used to have to drink a whole thing of water and then towards the end I had to drink not much because the side effects are like diarrhea and constipation and there's kind of like this middle ground where you're like both or neither it's really really weird but the scans took longer towards the end just because the beats weren't lying where they were meant to so I have to go and half empty my bladder for example and that's really really difficult especially when you've had kids and it's probably difficult regardless of whether you've had kids um or there would be gas pockets so they could see the gas coming through and they couldn't do anything like you know you try to you know you know see where you can fart it out but you'd be worried that you'd follow through with the fart like that like all the things as i said absolutely no filter with this so i think treatment wise this was probably the one where the majority of the side effects did hit me um but as i said the oncologists would play it against each other anyway so to go through the the first sheet that i got bladder irritation was one um i don't recall getting that um And I think they, yeah, so I had Ural highlighted. So I had Ural on standby anyway. I think I maybe took it like once or twice. I didn't have to have it very often. I got a decent tasting one. I was like... Blackberry or Apple Blackcurrant or something. I can't remember. Or you can have cranberry juice as well. But I was lucky that I didn't really have issues with the bladder. The bowel irritation was probably more where it was at. So it can be abdominal discomfort, you can have more wind, it can be blood or mucus, anal soreness, not soreness, diarrhea slash constipation and nausea. So I think the diarrhea slash constipation slash nausea was probably where I was more at. It was suggested I grab... I think it might have been like coloxal drops. I'm thinking back to like when the kids were little. I can't remember. I have to go through like my drugs. But I think the hospital did try to take me. Metamucil was not recommended. I can't remember why. I just know that that wasn't recommended. I think I ended up chowing down on kiwi fruits from memory. And I think that was a natural way to move things through. um the derby and constant pace and nausea is also side effects of the cisplastin so all this is platinum sorry um tiredness so it definitely had the tiredness in on that as well um what else did we have very lucky with skin reactions so i'm told a lot of breast cancer patients do have issues with blisters and stuff um hair loss did occur um So, yeah, it could come from the radiation. But, yeah, I didn't have blistering or anything like that across any of that area. So very, very lucky with that. The Moogoo is... pretty well um i had heaps of moogoo given to me so i'd really recommend moogoo uh if you're listening or watching this if you have any other suggestions for you know getting through the skin reaction stage let us know but touch wood well it's not touchable because i've had it but it yes i you did use moogoo but i i didn't have any issues with skin which was really really lucky so um With the swelling, I did. But, again, I think that was more chemo related. So if you missed one of the prior podcasts, I broke down my chemo treatment. I made the mistake on my first chemo of not elevating my legs and I had really bad restless legs. I was swollen. It was very, very uncomfortable because I was pumping like thirty, forty litres. Like it's, no, three or four litres. No, forty litres would be ridiculous, wouldn't it? Three to four litres, I think it was. But the second time I had it, I didn't make that mistake. So I don't think I necessarily had swelling of the legs from this. That was more from the chemo. um and that's probably all of that but yeah as i said when i was going through that process i was kept saying i'm healed i'm healed i'm i'm healed like that's that's it you are left alone in the room alone uh they kind of measure you up make sure that you don't move don't bop along i was sucking on lollies towards the end as well then i started to choke on the lollies so probably don't do that either because otherwise that's not going to end well um So you are in the room on your own. Well, this was my experience anyway, but like my team were amazing. They knew I was getting kind of anxious towards the end. Like you'd have your routine. So it would go around and do your scans and then there wasn't, you kind of heard it lock into place and then you know that you were good. If I'd done the scans and you couldn't hear it lock into place and there was a delay, you knew that there was an issue. It was like, you're going to have to, go empty your bladder you're gonna have to try to fart you're gonna have to try and do whatever it was um or they'd have to get sign off because it wasn't within the measurements that were kind of deemed safe because they don't want to fry the other bits uh so yeah so they came with me over The microphone haters, like, it's all okay. We all hate. You'd hear them start to come down the hallway. Then you know that you'd be like, okay, I've got to go and do something or we're going to have to let the next person in and then go back out. So. very frustrating, kind of pretty easy. The last few weeks were not as quick, unfortunately. So, and it got to a point just any time I went to the hospital, I would just write off the whole day because you just don't know what you're going to be hit with, whether it's a scare, whether it's another blood test, you're delayed getting treatment because of your bits not being in order or somebody else hasn't been well. Yeah, so just basically write the day off think the other one uh i would go through as well so just says radiation is typically five to six weeks so i had twenty five i just i was five weeks i had twenty five uh in total at any time you start to feel unwell you have sweats or shivers or whatever um you go straight to hospital they give you like a card which basically is a i skip everybody in the wedding room and i'm straight to emergency card so uh i didn't have to use that though thankfully a few times i thought i might need to but I didn't. So I'm not going to go into like whether you're pregnant or not. That was not my experience. So I'm not going to. Discuss that. What else? So some cancer treatments can affect your ability to have children. So in my case, that is me. Sorry, I still have this hair up my mouth because she's really, really annoying. But I had my two girls, so that didn't faze me. If you're looking at having kids, then that's something you're going to have to discuss with your oncologist. um depending on cancer and location and stuff of course but um i was told that i'd be going into um surgical and medical menopause so initially i was actually told i was going to have a full hysterectomy and then that changed so don't be surprised if what you're told the plan changes my plan had changed a little bit especially the stages of the cancer went from one to two to three so i it's flexibility and you there's there's no choice and unfortunately so um but yes so kid wise um ovaries are fried in my case and i'll do a separate uh episode on that But again, the bowel inflammation, that's something I definitely did have. I would say I was probably more constipated than having diarrhea, a really fine line. I said you kind of whine all the other and then sometimes some weird thing in between. The tiredness and lack of energy, the fatigue, I think that is probably a real side effect of everything. I still have that. I still have the fatigue. My sleep's gone again. Just... lack of energy uh sometimes you're kind of like depressed I suppose as well so that I'm still experiencing uh bladder problems uh discomfort uh when you urinate or having to go more quickly um thankfully I didn't really have that problem either uh with the bowel side that just reminded me that when I needed to go I needed to go yeah it's not like you can and kind of hold it to the next town or whatever. It was if I need to go or I need to go like right now type thing, you didn't have much space because all of a sudden you would go from kind of being locked up to the opposite of that. So... Kind of when I was pregnant towards the end of the car, ended up getting and sitting on that in the car just in case. Didn't need it either. Also took a spare set of clothes and underwear in my bag to hospital just in case. I didn't need that either. But it was just me preparing in case something were to happen. And if it happened, it happened. You know, as well as it feels really demeaning, it's not like you're doing things, you know, on purpose type thing. So that had helped me. Skin changes, again, I was very lucky. I didn't have the rash or anything like that. So that was good. The hair loss, I said that was something that wasn't going to phase me, but it is now phasing me. Menopausal symptoms, so hot flashes and night sweats, mood changes, sorry, irregular or no periods, issues sleeping, I would say issues sleeping still, definitely. I was getting a lot bigger and easier, oriented myself. The three of us were basically at hospital. Mood changes, you know, very difficult as well because you're feeling so unwell. You're at hospital all the time and especially if you have families or work responsibilities, I'd say the mood was probably definitely in there as well. But, yes, metal is not going to have the nipple side, but, you know, the heat and the mood, those things do may be applicable as well. It actually has acute underlined ending capitals on this page as well. So they're the most common ones, I think. Increased bleeding and infection. So this is one that was, it had like a septic card as well, which was basically, you know, if you go to hospital, you skip everybody, your priority type thing, which I didn't have to use. Very careful, like if you cut yourself, making sure that you stop bleeding, getting infections. So I'd wash my hands all the time. I think the chemo obviously affects the blood and your white blood cells and red blood cells and everything like that as well. Keeping an eye on your temperature, staying away from people that are unwell, but, you know, making sure you're not having those cold shivers or the headaches or the sweats or the shakes or sore throat, severe pain. I was having that, but I think I'll save that for the immuno. because I think it was more related to the immunocyte than this. Fast heartbeat. My blood pressure wasn't the best throughout all of this as well. You know, the height was like one ninety four over something like it was. bad very bad as that hospital went the day that that happened but uh yeah my blood pressure wasn't wasn't good but i refused to go on blood meds so uh blood uh blood pressure meds so um so i kept saying it was situational and it's back to normal now so um nausea and vomiting didn't vomit at all throughout the whole entire experience there were definitely bouts of nausea I was taken into nausea meds like they were tic-tacs because I knew that if I started to feel unwell, the whole wheels were going to fall off. And on the odd occasion, I'd be driving towards Newcastle and I'd be like, oh, my God, I need to turn around. And I'd go home. I don't feel well. I just had spew bags with me. I had any sort of food. I had dry food. I had fruit. I just had anything that I was going to be able to eat. I had water and hydrolytes. But thankfully, no vomiting at all throughout my whole entire treatment. But, you know, the nausea was there, even with the anti-nausea meds. So I just, I was just honest from the start that I knew I had to go on that to get through it. i suppose so don't be afraid of having those conversations with your oncologists and obviously you can get other opinions as well uh bowel irritation i had um mentioned all already um yeah when it talks about you might have issues having sex as well so which that's the last thing on your mind when you're going through any of this Bladder changes, as I said, that was very, very lucky with the bowel. We've already gone through bowel blockage. It's highlighted rare here. I don't think I had any bowel blockage. But, yeah, so that's, I think that's different to constipation. So, yeah, so I didn't have any issues with that. Early menopause, which we'd gone through, which I'll do a separate one for that. Tiredness. I feel like this is just repeating itself. Gone through the tiredness. The lymphedema, which I said in relation to the swelling. I've actually started to dry breath. to get the lymph nodes moving. The lady who I got remedial massage from wasn't comfortable massaging me whilst I was going through this, which was completely understandable. So I did have a couple of Bowen sessions I think throughout, but I only started dry brushing post-treatment. I probably would have started that earlier just to get the lymph happening, movement happening faster fluid happening type things. So, yes, but I need to start at that. So pelvic fracture, thankfully no, kind of have been avoiding putting myself in a place where I may fracture my pelvis. I haven't really gone back to sport or I haven't gone back to sports at all. I've only just started walking again. Walking wasn't incredible. putting anyone that's a hundred and up and down. and stairs, getting up from sitting down, walking into the shops. I'd struggle with that or kind of get, like, really hot and anxious. So going out in public, I'll try to avoid that. But, yeah, thankfully no pelvic fractures. But getting up in my car to have a Land Cruiser, like, that was hard at times as well. So no pelvic fractures but definitely very – uh restricted movement i suppose uh developing a second cancer um So it says that there's a very small risk that you may develop a second cancer as a result of the radiation. It says this is uncommon and may not happen until at least ten years after treatment. Yay, that's something to not look forward to. So that is on there and it's highlighted. What do they have written here? One in one thousand. Not sure what that is. next word says but in ten to fifteen years so it's a must be a one in one thousand chance of getting it um bladder and bone cancer um distant i don't quite start that writing says you tell a doctor wrote this um stage three c one which i was um my all right down here the oh i don't know it's me or the doctor but so you're deemed to have survived cancer if you hit five years the survival rate for the cancer that i had is fifty to sixty percent chance i'll still be alive in five years those starts are really really gross So be very mindful as to how, what words you use. I refer to it as the cancer, not my cancer and things like that. But, yeah, I could be five years in one day and die and I'm still deemed to have survived cervical cancer. But, yeah, a fifty, sixty percent chance. So it's like half. Well, seeing that again is a little bit triggering. I'm going to say that wasn't quite right either. I want to say that starts out better than that, but let's, yeah, let's not do this. Well, I'll be right back. active, no hair loss yet to come through, diet. It was very difficult to get any feedback about diet and exercise from the oncologist. I was told very specifically to go home and eat whatever you want. So to me, I'm now getting the dietary treatment. My intention was to be really good with my diet and It became very evident very quickly that I was going to eat whatever I could eat. So because you just you either don't have an appetite or you were just chowing down on carbs all day. So like biscuits and chips, just things that are dry. So I've now started correcting my diet. But, yeah, comments from that same box as well. So drying, so I had no issues. I didn't have to have any vaccinations during treatment. If you take any medications or the supplements, you just let the team know. The only time I had to stop taking them was recently with the thyroid, which I'll be able to go back on. And before. x-rays and other treatment you'll have so many x-rays and PET scans and MRIs and everything it's ridiculous uh you'll have follow-ups um try to quit smoking they say try to stay active which is very hard to to move um it's common to feel overwhelmed worried anxious or depressed before during and after treatment i'd say there was probably a bit of everything uh in that and then it's just some help lines after that so that was the radiation side um if To have my time again, would I do it? I don't know because I haven't explored enough of the other options. In my mind, I'm telling myself I'm never going to have cancer again. I think both the chemo and the radiation have served its purpose. Again, I think despite it being an aggressive approach, which I keep playing down, I think I still scored pretty well throughout treatment. Post-treatment is where I've had the most issues and I believe that is mainly from the immunotherapy that I was on more than the chemo and the radiation or the brachy. So, yeah, I don't think there's really anything else I can think about for the external beam. I think I've been pretty out there with it. If you have any questions at all or write from me something or not explain something well, please let me know. I don't think... Yeah, I can't think of anything else that I had on the external beam side of things that I haven't mentioned today. But I've done these episodes just to be really clear with the treatment that I received and the side effects that I have. had on it and i said my team were absolutely amazing they they really really were so um yeah so that's it from the external beam side of things i really do hope this uh helps people either navigating this situation or contemplating what to do i believe the the western part of medicine has served me well but now it's time for me to do uh some other things i suppose especially seeing that survival rate of fifty to sixty percent that's kind of like re-triggered me all over again but um yeah so thank you so much for listening please make sure you subscribe uh not all the episodes are cancer-based but i just wanted to i started to pack things up i suppose and i thought before i pack things up i just wanted to um yeah do an episode on each treatment that I had to hopefully help somebody else in this unfortunate circumstance. But yeah, that's it from me. Please make sure you get your checks and enjoy the rest of your day. See ya. Thanks, Jim.
