Good question! Does urgency improve after radiation? Northeast Georgia Urology

“John, don’t let short-term gratification out weigh long-term gain.” That’s what my mother said to me many times and that is why I am a doctor. It is however not why I am a urologist.

“Mom….this is John. I have decided to be a urologist.”

“Ye Gods John. Do you know what they do.” Priceless and why I loved my mother so. So real and uncensored. She was the best. Period!

So to the question: Will the urgency get better after radiation.

In my book I make a big point of saying that every prostate cancer patient should know what the prostatic urethra is. Do you know what it is and why it is important? The prostatic urethra goes away with a radical prostatectomy. The prostatic urethra is irritated with radiation and the reason why patients have urgency, frequency, getting up at night and not making it to the bathroom after radiation. Will you have these symptoms? If you have them will they be severe? If you have them will they be short-lived? Will they ever show up three to five years down the road? Will they go away? Will they mild and associated with diarrhea? Will they not got away?  Are there medicines that will help? Will I ever have blood in my urine three years after I have been treated with radiation? Will I get a cancer because of radiation? Can I have surgery if I have had radiation and by that will radiation affect surgery of my prostate or any other abdominal surgery that I might need?

Good question. The truth of the matter is that you will not know the answers to these  questions until you have radiation and see how your body responds. Some people’s tissues can take it, some can’t. In my book I am an expert witness for a urologist and a patient that brought a suit against him. This particular patient’s body did not like radiation….in a bad way.

So…urgency or the irritative effect of the radiation on your prostatic urethra….may get better, it may get worse, it may respond to pyridium, it may be short-lived, it may be nothing , it may be debilitating.

As a radiation therapist said to me about the treatments of prostate cancer……

“Choose your poison.”