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Radiation treatments finished on April 30th. The next day I was very nauseated and vomited later that evening. However, the following days were much better. I experienced abdominal pain during the night and would get up and drink milk, this helped tremendously. The pain went away after a couple of weeks. My radiation oncologist told be later that medications such as Zantac would have helped eliminate this pain as it was probably excess acid in the stomach.

I had a chest x-ray and blood work in August 2001, to check for reoccurrence in the chest area or other signs that cancer was present. The next day I got a call from my oncologist. A spot had been detected on my chest x-ray. He needed to see my previous film along with my CT scans. I left work in a hurry, drove to my local hospital and picked up the x-rays and CT scans. He looked at them that day and called me to say that he thought it was scar tissue, but to be sure we should get another CT scan of the chest. I got an appointment for two days later. My blood work turned out fine. The CT scan came out clear – I even got the results the same day, boy was I relieved.

I have continued with follow-up exams for 6 years now. Initially, every 6 months I got a chest x-ray and blood work (tumor markers) and then in addition to that, a CT of the abdomen and pelvis once a year. In March 2005 my oncologist moved me to a yearly schedule and in March 2006 we dropped the tumor markers and annual CT but continued with yearly chest x-rays. He also runs a PSA test and says that the incidence of prostate cancer is slightly higher in TC patients. For some reason my white cell count has run a little low each time it was tested. My oncologist thought that this may be due to some damage to the bones in the area that was irradiated. Apart from that so far so good, lets hope it stays that way!