Have the results now….

You now have a firm plan you can deal with, so that's progress.

In my experience with ADT it's important to start by maintaining a healthy diet, watch weight (easy to get a spare tyre round the waist) and exercise. It sounds like this is already likely to be easy to maintain.

All the best for a successful course of reatment towards a cure.

Derek.

Hello Porthleven 

Thank you for the update.

Well now you know just where you stand you can move on to "the new normal". T3b should be a "curative pathway", in theory the Hormone Therapy robs the cancer of it's food (testosterone) and it stops growing and spreading and a few months later the radiotherapy kill off the cancer cells for good.

Hormone Therapy weakens your bone structure - so a prescription for calcium/vitamin D tablets is a good idea. I would think he's going to be on HT for 3 years - so if he's worried about growing a pair of moobs (I have a cracking pair of 38DD's ) he needs to ask for medication to stop the growth as you can't reverse it later. 

As Derek said above exercise and diet are important. As for the other side effects - well you don't get all of them but tackle them when (if) they start to show.

Best wishes - Brian.

I wanted to say "That's me! That's me!", because your results mimic mine very well. 

My agreed treatment was almost the same as well. I had longer to wait for the RT because I was blessed with a "chunky" prostate. 

You asked specifically about reactions to the therapy. 

I have all the usual suspects, without quite being able to get to 38DD (Brian).

In the end I found that the best way to deal with them was to allow myself to be amused by them. 

Fatigue? Either push through (which has been possible for me), or take a nap. 

Hot Flushes? Threaten to hug anyone who notices. 

Erectile dysfunction? My PSA is not the only thing that is undetectable.

So, this is my personal reaction. I am lucky in that my wife and I had already adapted our intimacy because of health problems she had, so that what was a huge hurdle for many men was much less so for us. 

Sometimes I think that dealing with this is not so much a matter of treating side effects as adapting to them, and slightly reorganizing life around them. That has worked for me, and especially the humour. 

My family consider me unhinged. 

What has worked for me may not work for others. It is certain that there is a way to move forward. It is a matter of finding the way that suits. 

Hi Porthleven  My husband was diagnosed with T3B. His treatment was RT and HT You are right, exercise is very important to combat the side affects of HT and to also give your husband a lot more overall energy. Bone health is also very important, so again weight bearing exercises to toughen bones. 2-3 sessions a week. My husband wasn’t that keen on going to a gym initially, but he’s now been doing it for three years and it’s kept his body trim and fit, no Moobs, no tummy. HT gives a constant fight with the fat to muscle ratio.  He will need to take extra calcium and vitamin D. Magnesium and vitamin C is also good support. You must ok any supplements with your consultant, but they will probably suggest the first two anyway. He’s also been on a healthy diet all through. Occasionally he goes mad and has a snack binge though. Protein is very important, try to cut out sugary snacks and keep alcohol low or just cut it completely out if he’s not much of a drinker. Lots of veg, low red meat. BW has porridge + fruit, yogurt for breakfast   . Lunch is usually a chicken breast, salads, dips like hummus, wholemeal pitter bread or Sushi. I’ll do normal things for dinner mainly chicken or fish based meals lots of veg options. Try to lean towards veggie/ pulse based meals, which is really the way to go, but hard to stick to for us. We’ve stopped white pasta and bread. Snacks are  - nuts, corn snacks, fruit. Bananas, yogurt. We try … but we slip up a fair bit if we get hold of a family bag of crisps. 
if you can be strict with exercise and food it will make the HT journey better.

L

Hormone therapy is a mean bugger and takes your masculinity so beware for the couple’s disease to rear its ugly head.

ED is common and the biggest problem that you will face as a couple.

Hot flushes are anoying but not that bad if you get your head space ready for them. Stress will make everything worse.

As Millibob says watch the moons and check for breast cancer like every women should. There is more chance now so be aware and know your (husbands) body.

Lastly, laugh as much as you can. This disease is not at all nice so make sure you are happy when you can and make fun of you weakness’.

Tale care

Hi Porthleven - I assume full pelvic radiotherapy, so probably 23 fractions - this is like a nuclear wind flattening those cancer cells (they die when they wake up after HT).  Great news about the CT and bone scans - what a relief!  Nice that he is on a curative pathway - let’s hope it’s all in the pelvis (or even still in just the prostate gland) and let those radiotherapy waves work their magic.  AW

Thanks. We are very much focused on dealing with the issues that ADT will bring. Thankfully after 45 years together we are a pretty solid team but are very aware that this will test us. I agree about laughing, a sense of humour is paramount! 

Thanks, I agree diet is paramount, along with regular exercise. Luckily he’s a fit chap who doesn’t have any other health issues so that’s one thing in his favour. 

My CT and bones scans did not show metastatic spread ,but pet scan did .Diagnosed stage 3 by urology upgraded stage 4 by oncologist,?

Doing well except for chronic prostatitis, waiting since January  for appointment with urology .

Hello Mal C 

Mal CG said:

waiting since January  for appointment with urology .

That's not good! I would contact your hospital PALS office (Patient Advice and Liaison Service), tell them of your wait and ask them if they can sort out an urgent appointment.

Best wishes - Brian.