Dads prostate cancer

I’m sorry but I don’t know the answer to your question. But I do see that your message has not had a reply. My reply will push it back up to the top and I’m sure someone will be able to help. I wish you and your Dad all the very best.

Good morning Disneylandb3ad46 .

My husband developed bone mets but not in the spine or hips. I will try and answer some of your questions from his perspective.

He had been on standard over the counter painkillers until these were insufficient in dealing with the pain. He was then put onto oral Tramadol which worked for a while but eventually he was put on a low dose patch which immediately improved things. He was started on the low dose to see how he coped, especially in terms of nightmares and hallucinations. Initially he had some headaches but these soon disappeared and he did have odd dreams for the rest of the time he was on the patches. Once we found out he tolerated them we had to increase the dose of the patch to control the pain which it did very well and allowed us to carry on doing what we enjoyed. 

Your father will probably be put onto hormone therapy initially which controls the cancer, shrinking it and usually helps to reduce pain levels so you will need to work with the doctors and your dad to ensure that he receives the right level of pain relief throughout his treatment. 

My husband also had his bone mets treated with radiotherapy which worked very well at killing the cancer there for him. He also had chemotherapy which acts systemically to kill the cancer in the body.

Treatment for advanced prostate cancer usually starts after all the tests have been done so try and get your father to appointments so that he can start treatment as soon as possible. I would try to get to see an oncologist as soon as possible in your dad's case as they are the people who will devise the treatment plan. The biopsy is usually tolerated well by men, it doesn't take long. It is usually done under local anaesthetic but maybe you could speak to the doctors about giving your dad a light sedative to make him more comfortable for the procedure. The biopsy will tell the experts how aggressive the cancer is which will then direct the treatment path. After the CT scan it is usual to have a bone scan to check whether there is spread anywhere else. Once all the tests have been done a multidisciplinary team will look at them and decide on the best course of action for your dad taking into account his age and overall health.

His pain was never so bad that he was in bed and it is important to try and keep your dad as mobile as possible so that you can assess whether he develops spinal cord compression which needs immediate hospital treatment to prevent permanent damage.

Constant tiredness is a symptom of cancer and treatments do also cause fatigue for which the best antidote is exercise of some form which can be tailored to your dads ability.

My husband suffered from PTSD and depression and certainly cancer made this worse. Being told you have cancer is a shock to both the patient and family members and during the initial testing and diagnosis stage it can become all consuming. Most people find that once they have a full diagnosis and treatment starts then you learn to accept it and can carry on living a new norm with the cancer. 

Eating is good as it will give him strength to deal with the cancer. There are some recommendations such as eating plenty of fruit and veg, limiting full fat dairy products and animal fats generally, avoid processed food, alcohol and caffeine, drink plenty (at least 1.5 - 2 litres a day.

All the best for the results and let us know how you get on. Please ask any questions and we will try and answer them if we can.