Update on dad

Hi

Sorry to hear it wasn’t good news. X

Hi

I have had it in my bones for over three years, it’s not pleasant but you can live with it, chemo and RT, will help with the PC, but the only thing for the bones is either as you said radium 233 or radiotherapy on the infected areas which they will be reluctant to do, as it makes the bones brittle and could affect other organs.

I do take Alca D it helps strengthen the bones not a cure just helps.

take care 

joe

Sorry to hear about your dad.  It does sound that they are going to treat it aggressively.

I hope you find this information helpful.

But other forms of Radiotherapy may be tried first.

best wishes

Hi Joe

The doctor was quite optimistic because he has low metastatic burden (3 mets) the rt isn't for the bones from what I understand.  The rt is to blast the prostate.  This treatment wasn't available this time last year and only became so in October last year.  I believe that it was due to the Stampede trial. I had read about it for low number of bone mets but didn't think it would apply to my dad as you have to have less than 5 and dad had 7 suspicious areas. Just hope dad's body can take the aggressive treatment :-(!  I'm trying to live life as normal and trying to do so for mum and dad.  We're going away for a few days to try and keep us all occupied and we're off to Spain in a couple weeks too before he starts treatment.  Hopefully the r and r will help get him ready.

Fingers xd xx

Thanks Urobos.  

Neither of these treatments are what dad will be having.  I thought it would be radium 233 and asked this.  Doc said no that was for bone treatment.  The Stampede trial has shown for men with low metastatic burden they blast the prostate - at least that was my understanding. As mentioned to Joe I had read about this but didn't think it would apply for dad as it has to be lower than 5 and dad was showing 7 suspicious areas.  However of the 7 only 3 are showing to be mets.  So whilst it could have been better it could have been a whole lot worse and thank you to the doc that decided to check  him during his urology visit for something completely unrelated - he could well have sorted his original problem and sent him on his way - 6-12 months on and it could have been a whole lot worse!

Robbo

You're right those treatments are for the bone mets.

However, I imagine that the radiotherapy used to blast the prostate gland itself will still be external beam radiation.

Things are better than they could have been, I have read the report on the Stampede trial.  It works for low metastatic burden, but not high.  So that's also a positive.

Yes external beam I believe - definitely not radium 233 at this stage.  Trying to stay optimistic after yesterday (still hard at the moment!) But dad joked he has a wing walk booked for his 90 th. Doc  asked if that was his aim.  Dad said yes doc said I'll do my best.  Whilst I think dad being a bit optimistic there it was quite uplifting that they are looking at years over months of treatment.  Just hope dad's body can take the aggressive treatment!

Hi Robbo.

Loving your Dad's resilience and good humour. It is easy to see why he is so special to you. Thought I'd share my limited experience regarding the treatments. So far I've been on hormone therapy since January and chemotherapy since May. Hormone therapy I've found fairly easy to adapt to. I simply have to make allowances for a bit of fatigue and muscle wastage. Chemotherapy has for me been a tougher challenge. I have done 5 of 6 cycles with steroids (same prescription as your Dad). The tricky thing about chemo is that it affects different people in vastly different ways and to different extents, and he may need a fair amount of support during that phase of his schedule. I count myself as fortunate. I have no nausea, no eye problems, no skin problems, no digestive problems (did have at first until my dosages were reduced by 10%), no mouth sores, no significantly brittle nails. All of these things are fairly common side effects on which statistics must be available if you'd like to look (percentage of patients that experience each symptom). What I do have is increased lethargy and taste changes, particularly during the first week of each three week cycle, during which I tend to only want easily digestible and small meals. By about midway through week two I am slowly coming back to my normal self and by week three I am more or less back to my normal life, albeit with reduced energy. Additional things to mention re the chemo are the steroids and injections. To ease the possibility of nausea a bag of steroids is administered via a canula immediately prior to the chemo drug of choice (in my case docetaxel). This has an effect on me for several days, making my heart race and making it far more difficult to sleep. By the end of the first week however its effects wear away. On days three to eight of my cycle I inject a drug into my thigh or stomach region to increase the white cell production in my bones. This is to reduce the risk of infections by bolstering the immune system. It took me about three days to get used to this, after which it hasn't troubled me. The side effect that I experience from this is slight bone pain in the legs, which I guess is the result of the increased cellular activity there. Having become used to it it is now something that I simply note and which doesn't cause me the anxiety that it did at first. This stops when I get to the end of the injections. I have not experienced radiotherapy as yet, but for most people it seems to cause less problems than chemotherapy apart from the fact that it implies daily visits to a hospital each weekday (i.e. not at the weekends, 5 days out of 7).

Very best wishes to you both.

Having experienced life both as a cancer carer and a cancer patient I am hugely sensitive to the demands of each role.

Jonathan x

Jonathan

Thanks for sharing this.

Robbo

I'm not planning any wing walking.

No one can say for sure (for anybody really) how long they've got, but I think your dads does have years and it does sound as if he has resilience.  Quality counts, not necessarily quantity.