Hello,
I’m looking for a little advice for my dad, who was a healthy, active 70 year old up till last year. Over the last year he really struggled with pain in his back and was awaiting an MRI when Covid put everything on hold. As he’d previously had slipped disks in his back we weren’t overly concerned about something serious. Nevertheless, his mobility deteriorated significantly over the year till he struggled to walk and eventually he got an urgent MRI at the start of July. The MRI discovered secondary tumours on his spine which was causing compression of the cord and he was kept in hospital. They further discovered cancer had spread to his hip and the top of his femur. They found prostate cancer as the primary source and his PSA was “in the thousands”. He’s received targeted radio therapy to the spine which gave him immediate relief and gave him hormone injections in hospital to treat the prostate. He was then moved hospital to orthopaedics where they gave him a full hip replacement also removing 6 inches of femur which was effected by the cancer too. This all came as a massive shock as he’d had no prostate symptoms and seemed well up until the sore back.
He was finally discharged from hospital exactly a month after he went for his planned MRI appointment and he’s making great progress, back on his feet and walking and getting more independent each day.
At his recent oncology appointment they told him he’d be on the hormone injections with Arbiraterone for now and they expected his PSA to reduce to single figures.
Today we got his PSA results and they are sitting at 35. Obviously massively improved from the “thousands” but can these still reduce further? It’s obviously not the “single figures” we were hoping for.
Also all the doctors have been positive about prognosis, highlighting there won’t be a cure but should be manageable for years to come but given all he’s been through and the spread of the cancer it’s hard to trust in this. I suppose I’m wondering if we’re being naive to hope we’ve got years ahead of us?
I’ve really appreciated reading everyone’s stories, I’ve been lurking in the middle of the night during the long weeks he was in hospital.
Thanks!
