Disturbing and conflicting radiation information

The skill and knowledge and expertise in any given modality/treatment is paramount and the technology being maintained or handled the way it should. The link Alf gave is real horror story of what can go wrong....Murphy's Laws include medicine and professionals. Which can be said for any treatment or protocols used. We have horror stories in all of them too.
David did your doc evey tell you to drink water prior to radiations???? If not that is one red flag, and not enough experience as to disclosures and possible side effect related issues. Just curious on that.

English Alf - thanks for the link. Article impressed me so much, that I have already e-mailed the link to my attorney to read

zufus - i discussed the lack of having fluid in my bladder 2-3 times with the radiation oncologist before treatments ever started. I told her that I have never heard of SRT being done without a full bladder. Her comment - I got that covered.
Even though I had the suprapubic catheter in the whole time, that was no excuse, as they could have clamped off the cath and still have me drink x amount of water before each treatment or use an irragation syringe and inject liquid up the cath and then released it when the zap was over. I was concerned this going dry was going to be a big mistake, but the doc was so sure of herself. Obviously, she was dead wrong.

Sancarlos,

Fair question. After my open surgery, I had constant stricture problems right at the bladder neck. Altogether I had 6 day surgeries to attempt to correct it, but had severe scarring issues each time. At one point, the bladder neck scarred 100% closed within 30 days of a correction.

Going into the SRT, it was a known risk that there is a lot more chance of having strictures, even if you didn't have them before. So the URO, my radiation oncologist, and I, mutually agreed to have the suprapubic cath installed, so that I wouldn't have to chance having any painful and potentially dangerous situations with a closure in the middle of the the SRT treatments.

The original intent was to remove the cath a month after the radiation ended, but there was already too much bladder and bladder damage from the radiation at that time to do it. So each month, with a fresh cath tube in place, we would hope for some kind of natural healing to take place. It never did. So after 11 months of increasing pain, the decision was made to bypass the bladder altogether. It was a tough decision, and a life changing one at that.

Advanced re-constructive bladder neck surgery was considered and then ruled out by the expert at Duke, because of the extent of the radiation damage.

That left me with the tried and true, old school ileal conduit surgery which was done in September.

There is no doubt in my mind, that without the suprapubic cath in place, I would have ended up in a serious emerency situation.

We tested my ability to urinate naturally a few times during that 11 months of waiting, and they were pain level 10 attempts each and every time because of the damage.

David in SC