Here Is What Worked For Me...

More about me here: Disclaimers & Qualifications and A Note About How Expensive All This Shit Is.

For general irritation, swelling, unhappiness of nether regions caused by pelvic radiation:


What worked: 

1. I had to stop using toilet paper at some point, which felt like sand paper. experimented with various baby wipes. There are myriad varieties but ones that I have found do not cause more irritation for me are: Swipes, Cottonelle Fresh Care Wipes, and Earth's Best Chlorine free Flushable wipes. (I don't flush them, I think they clog plumbing in spite of 'flushable' marketing.)
2. The best thing is just to use instead of t.p. is water - I carry a small cup with me. A plant/water spritzer feels great. 
3. Large men's briefs (so comfy!)
4. Sitz baths...30 mins a day in warm water, suggested by radiation oncologist. Feels good.
5. For the moment, I seem to have mostly managed to control pain with the different products listed here. Before I did that, I took Vicodin (Hydrocodone + paracetamol or acetaminophen) a few times. Tylenol (acetaminophen or paracetamol) alone had no effect. 
6. When a medicine or supplement is recommended to you, make sure you're getting what is recommended without other things added to it, which could cancel out the benefit you're getting from the medicine. Even multivitamins for example have herbs added to them, and psyllium husk has stuff added to it that can give you diarrhea. 

Rash in my groins, which turns out is just burnt - did not realize this until it started blistering...


What worked for longest time: 

1. Spring Wind herbal burn creme my acupuncturist gave me. I wish I had started using this before the red started appearing, would have made a difference apparently. I didn't think to put it on my groin but that was where the terrible pain ended up.
2. Topical anesthetic Lidocaine (xylocaine, or lignocaine) 4% gel or lotion behind pharmacy counter at local drugstore, couldn't find on shelf. This works well to stop the itching but doesn't actually heal the burning. 

What I tried before:

1. Chunks of fresh aloe, which feels wonderful for a while because it's cool but overall probably doesn't help. 
2. 1% hydrocortisone cream which did not do anything
3. Benadryl (diphenhydramine) helped a little but made me very sleepy

Vaginal itching


What worked: 

• Organic water-based vaginal lubricant, brand is Blossom Organic. Make sure you rinse it off at some point. I wasn't doing that every day and at some point I sort of broke out down there. Even though it's organic etc., tons of it on all the time will clog pores. 

What I tried before: 

• K-Y from drugstore caused more itching

Bowel nightmare

Bowel movements became excruciatingly painful, like knives (I would almost feel like I was starting to pass out.)

What worked: 

1. Dulcolax Laxative Suppositories 
2. Daily plain psyllium tablets (make sure you take with a full glass of water)
3. Eucerin Aquaphor original ointment - severely dry skin treatment

What I tried before:

• Senna Prompt (psyllium tablets with sennosides)(watch out for added stuff), which seemed to cause diarrhea

Constant peeing/Bladder irritation/Painful peeing

1. Ditropan (Oxybutynin) for bladder irritation works well, as needed, so I don't get up so many times at night
2. Corn silk tea for preventative/bladder infection (boil for 10 minutes). I've only found this at one store in San Francisco - a Cooperative grocery store called Rainbow. 
3. Remaining hydrated...Somehow I seem to pee less and hurt less when I drink more.

What I tried before:

• Cranberry tablets with vitamin C (doc told me not to take extra vit C other than in a  multi) but plain cranberry tablets might help.

Trouble from chemo/Diet/Walking
There is too much to list in this section, but the short version is, no caffeine, no sugar, almost nothing processed, everything organic, fish with omega 3's according to seafoodwatch.org, and lots of protein generally. I also take acidophilus to help with digestion - a refrigerated brand called Superdophilus which you mix with a glass of water 2 times a day.  I am also taking Chinese herbs, supplements, and vitamins every day, all of which I have run past my oncologist. Small frequent meals are ideal. Soup and protein shakes are easier to digest. I also walked at least 15 minutes almost every day, sometimes for an hour if I felt up to it, which was incredibly helpful. My diet, walking, and the Chinese medicine, kept my blood counts through the 6 weeks of chemo at levels my oncology nurse called "abnormally normal."

For nausea they are giving me Zofran and Decadron, which work for me, but apparently don't work for some people, or aren't enough. They cause constipation which is a nightmare beyond what it sounds like!

Hair Loss
I do not have hair loss so cannot make recommendations here. When I thought I was going to lose my hair (turns out my chemo does not have that side effect) I got some Nioxene shampoo for hair loss which feels great to use.

Other Complimentary Medicine

I also have been meditating pretty much every day for about 20 years, which I think has helped a lot in dealing with this.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND DOING  A LITTLE STRETCHING, ESPECIALLY THE HIPS, WHILE YOU ARE GETTING PELVIC RADIATION. for example, lying on your back, put your feel together and let your knees fall out to the side, and just stay that way. If it's uncomfortable you can put pillows under your thighs. It should not hurt, put in support if it does. I lost maybe a foot of range of motion after radiation. I am trying to deal with it now, 3 months hence, but I'm sure if I had some something then it would have helped a great deal.


Tai chi from Larry Wong. (the DVD I have is actually for Hep C, but is anyway good for you and good for your liver!)

Here is Larry's info:

Sifu Larry "D.G." Wong
Director of "Wong's Taiji and Chi Gung for Health"
San Francisco
(415) 753-0426
FORHEA1TH [at] AOL.COM
www.FlowWidit.MySite.com
"FREE" YouTube Qigong Instruction in 4 segments... Click Here...
or cut and paste... http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=larry+wong&aq=0