Brother diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer

Hi, sorry to hear about your brother.You haven’t made your post all about but about your care and concern for your brother. Contact your local Hospice Living Well centre. They will help you and guide you. Is you brother in hospital receiving any treatment. The consultant oncologist will explain what is happening but you may need to ask to see them. They don’t routinely talk to family members even to next of kin so you might have to be persistent. 
your brother may be in a state of shock and even denial so treat carefully. He might benefit from talking to one of the psychologists who work for your local hospice but there is often a waiting list. Ask for referrals to be made asap so help arrives sooner rather than later, talk to your brother’s GP and ask for help. 

Thank you so much Teatowel. That is very helpful advice and so kind.

Hi HMLondon sorry to hear your brother has PCa.  We are all different, we start at different points, our treatments are different and our progress is different.  Until you get the full diagnosis it is difficult to predict an outcome and even then lots of other factors play a part (age, lifestyle, fitness etc).

I have a friend who was diagnosed with a PSA of several thousand but now has a PSA below 1 ( It’s just a number).  An initial chat with an oncologist should highlight treatment options.  We always suggest 2 people attending (4 ears are better than 2).

Once he has a treatment plan, we can answer any more questions you have.

On a personal level, getting a PCa diagnosis made me sort out my affairs, which in turn made me feel better.

Thank you very much David. So kind to respond. Your comments are a message to me to slow down and listen above all at this stage. The instinct to charge ahead and take control for my brother's sake is very strong for me but already this forum is teaching me so much. Take good care.

Hi HMLondon, sorry your brother is unwell, once they get him on the right medication he will improve,  my husband was diagnosed 2 years ago with a psa of nearly 500 he also has extensive bone mets but at the moment his psa is 0.01 so undetectable. He recently had a heart attack and a stent fitted but is still working at home and have just spent 5 days working in the garden clearing up after having 3 trees pruned. So life can go on and yes it gives you time to get your house in order. Get your brother to give the medics permission speak to you as well it does help. 

All the best and take care of yourself as well.

Sheena 

That is great to hear Sheena and thank you so much for taking the time to respond. There is a lot to learn and when the numbers look so bad you jump to expecting the very worst. I am realising that with the right treatment that might not be the case, so I'm hoping that he may get the chance to live with it as comfortably as possible in the future. We will focus on that anyway. Your support means a tremendous amount.

Hi HM London 

my brother was diagnosed about 18 months ago Gleason 9 advanced multiple lymph nodes seminal he went down the triple therapy route it was hard but he came through it . His PSA is  0-02 and his cancer undetectable he’s just been to turkey then came back then went to Bulgaria he’s doing amazing . I came on to this site as I was in bits but without the help on here I don’t know what I would have done . The treatments are amazing now and he has few bad days muscle pain etc the dreaded hot flushes but honestly he’s doing amazing things look bleak at first your all over the place but honestly once he’s on right treatment for him it does get better I never thought 18 months ago that we would all be feeling much better but you do 

any questions feel free to ask I’m not a medical person but I can speak from experience 

BG