Hi bloggers,
it’s been a few weeks since the last instalment, so I thought I’d give an update!
Well the end to cycle 3 was pretty uneventful. I was feeling well enough for us to snatch a few days in the Peak District, which was very nice. Only sign that I’d had chemotherapy was the new symptom of slight breathlessness. I also had the urge to go for a wee more often in the day, which meant planning trips to places that definitely had a public loo. Easier said than done in this day and age! Also fumbling for a credit card to tap for your entry into said public loos when you’re desperate is awful 
So onward to cycle 4, the build up was pretty uneventful. The vampire took my blood 2 days before and the blood work was pretty normal, not much change really. The night before Dexamethasone as normal. Even the cannula went in with no issues. The biggest issue came when I asked for my PSA results. I could sense the nurses reluctance to tell me, but eventually she revealed a rather worrisome increase to 14.6! Up from 1.6 last time. OMG 
was my first thought. She tried to reassure me with “fluctuations are normal” and “don’t worry too much” but I sat there for the rest of the chemo session doing just that!
Anyway after the session I came home feeling decidedly glum, actually pretty upset. It made me realise just how my life has been taken over but a little score called PSA! Every 3 - 6 months (currently every 3 weeks) this would be my life to come. I suppose it’s a realisation that occurs to every PCa sufferer. It’s no fun!
in a quest to find out more, and to seek reassurance I contacted the prostrate cancer UK specialist nurse team. Thank goodness i did. She was marvellous, reassuring me that significant increases in PSA are normal during treatment phases. The phenomenon is know as chemo flare in my case. It’s like to peak and then decrease.
I then spoke to my Specialist Mc Milan nurse today 3/9/24 who is concerned about the increase. She was a concerned that it hasn’t been flagged via my oncologist. Anyway long and short of it is I’m going back to the hospital for a CT scan and she has also arranged for a Totesterone test and another PSA. So it’s a waiting game again!
Apart from that my symptoms this time were more extreme than my last cycle. Extreme tiredness, aches and pains in back, groin, pelvis. Bit of brain fog. So nothing spectacular I suppose. Manageable though.
i’ll update the blog soon!
