For those who have had radiation after surgery

yes, I had it (and blogged about it: pcabefore50.blogspot.com/search?q=proctitis )
My doctor prescribed Proctofoam. Worked wonders for me.
Maybe the doctor could phone in a prescription?

A caution: thinking my irritation was caused by hemorrhoids, I tried the usual ointment and suppositories. Didn't help, and the suppositories seemed to inflame things even more.

Proctofoam is anti-inflammatory and analgesic (pain relieving). It's comfortable to apply.

What your husband is experiencing is probably radiation proctitis. It's no fun, but it should be treatable and most likely will fade away once treatments are over.

Was not a problem for me (can you believe that, lol) but my dr gave me a script for the Analpram, which is still tacked to my bulletin board.

No burning sensation but definitely an odd warm feeling down there right from the end of the first week of RT, and a slightly odd feeling before passing wind.
I cleaned and rinsed the area (on the outside only!) with the shower hose after every BM and that helped sooth things, I guess it had both a cooling and numbing effect.
How we each get effected will have a lot to do with what we are like inside and the historic state of our insides before dx and treatment. I also think the diet they put me on for RT may have helped keep my rectum calm. (No spicy foods that irritate the gut and no foods that make you produce gas to stretch the gut) Sitting still too long also made it worse, as did sitting on the wrong surface.

These unpleasant feelings in the rectum are one of the side effects that you are told may appear with RT, so just keep mentioning it to the RT doctor so that it can be monitored and treated the right way at the right time.

Alfred