Radical prostatectomy, for instance, is quite likely to end up with the severe end of the spectrum ... but not necessarily. We mere mortals who receive the treatment have to simply wait and see.
I've been very fortunate because my brachytherapy has not only been successful (PSA falling), but the side effects I have had have been minimal. So when I went to see the urologist - see the linked article in the previous sentence - and he gave me the good news, I was slightly deaf to his other comment: "You're not through the side effects yet. You may experience more as the radiation level falls."
Literally within a couple of days, my bowels began to play up - a common side effect. Much gurgling and rumbling, with explosive output (is this too much detail for you?). This is a result of the bowel being irritated by the radioactivity in the seed that were inserted in the prostate to kill the cancer cells.
Moreover, on occasional days, my rate of urination appears to have gone through the roof. That means that I'm no sooner back from one trot to the loo than I am contemplating the next and hanging on to it so it's not quite so embarrassing.
Now this doesn't happen every day - nor do the eructations in the bowels. I thought it may link to alcohol intake - alcohol and caffeine can irritate the urethra and presumably the bowel too - but it happened also when neither of these had been ingested. So, work it out for yourself - I've no idea of the cause.
Meanwhile though, everything else has spun into top gear, function-wise and Gloria and I are wandering around with big smiles on our chops.
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