Radiation after surgery and work

Hi
Can anyone tell me how long they had off work after surgery and radiation for prostate cancer including the nodes
My husband is worried he will be unemployable as is on probation in his new job
Please help

How long does radiation last?
How bad are the side effects?
When can you return to work roughly would help if we had some idea?

I had surgery on a Thursday - I missed the whole following week and then went back to work at my desk job.

I had radiation as my primary therapy, and never missed a day of work. My appointments were over my lunch break, and I felt a bit tired and a bit dizzy after them, but was ok enough to work the rest of the afternoon. Did not have surgery, and of course that would involve days off.

Radiation itself is not painful, it's just an endurance contest. Sometimes there are side effects that are problematic (urinary urgency, bowel issues), but fortunately I didn't experience any long term problems (at least not so far!).

Mrs Joy,

With my surgery I took off four weeks from work. That varies from man to man but four to six weeks is probably typical. Unless he is very lucky he will probably have a period of urinary incontinence after his surgery and will probably go back to work wearing pads. The good news is they make excellent pads these days and work shouldn't be a huge problem for him even if he leaks.

I also had radiation. My treatments lasted seven weeks (seven or eight is typical for the kind of radiation I received) and I didn't miss any work at all. My work was 15 minutes from the cancer center and the treatment only takes 20 minutes each day. Along with an average wait of 30 minutes for the machine that makes 30 minutes in transit, 30 minutes in the waiting room, 15 minutes for the treatment or a total of one hour and 15 minutes each day for treatment. Grab a burger on the way back to the office and it didn't even make for a very long lunch break.

The usual side effect of the radiation is fatigue. Most guys find that as long as they stay active the fatigue isn't that bad. In my case it mostly meant that my wife had to tell me the ending of shows we watch on television. I would sit down in my comfy chair after supper, dim the lights and turn on the television and the next thing I knew the end credits were running and my wife was quizzing me on what was going on when I fell asleep so she could tell me the rest.

Other frequent side effects are hemorrhoids (his doctor can help with those) and other bowel changes, most notabliy gooey, mucousy stools and an unfortunate tendency to slightly soil one's shorts when passing wind.

So when you say surgery and radiation do you have an expected time table? It's a bit unusual to know going into surgery that one will also be doing radiation. Most often the need for adjuvant radiation is signaled by something on the post-surgical pathology report. In that case they will usually wait a few months to allow for healing and, hopefully, a return of continence before they wheel out the ray gun.

Bottom line, he should expect to miss some work from the surgery but probably be able to work through the radiation if his employer is willing to be a bit flexible.

I had SBRT - a kind of radiation done in just 5 treatments - I worked everyday with no problem. Side effects were irritative - frequency and urgency - but nothing that would keep me from work. They all resolved after a couple of weeks.

Can you tell us more about your husband's situation, and the diagnosis that led to this decision? Why do they want to treat the lymph nodes?

I had robotic surgery and I could have gone back after 10 days. But I decided to take a full three weeks off since I had tons of sick and annual time unused. My only restriction for the first month was not to lift anything over 25 pounds (if I remember correctly). After that now restrictions and let you body determine its limit.

I had two HDR sessions and missed work on those two days. Went back the next day after each session, but I'm a financial planner with a pretty big client base so it's not physical.

Had I been loading 80 lbs boxes all day, I would've needed 1-2 weeks off total.