I went with DH to his 3 monthly appointment yesterday. We were expecting to see his specialist nurse, but instead, we saw another resident doctor. We have now not seen the consultant since January or the specialist nurse since April.
Without having mentioned this to me beforehand, DH asked how long his current regime of twice yearly Decapeptyl injections and Abiraterone was likely to be effective. He had asked this question of his specialist nurse before and not got an answer, but this resident doctor was much more forthcoming.
To my surprise, she told him that he should expect it to fail in around 2 years 'give or take'. She said some people didn't get that long, but others got longer. She also mentioned that he might get to a point where he was unable to tolerate the side effects any longer. That is probably more relevant. Although he is now on pregabalin and venlafaxine in an effort to control side effects, he is becoming increasingly concerned about the amount of medication he is taking.
So it now looks as though we've got a couple of years, if we're lucky, before we get to the firefighting stage. This is what we've wanted all along so we can plan.
For the moment his PSA is undetectable, but on the downside he is now anaemic, there is concern that he might become Type 2 diabetic and he has lots of digestive issues , which are beginning to affect what he can actually eat.
