Advice and suggestions

Afternoon Avila,

Welcome to the Prostate Cancer forum. I found (and still do) this a great help.  You can basically ask anything and someone else will have been through it.

To your question about Radiation, last year I had to wait for 3 months after starting on the Hormones before I could start the 20 fractions of Radiotherapy.

Someone I work with is currently on 20 fractions of Radiotherapy, they didn't put him on Hormones first.  He has 2 to go and isn't doing too well (up over 10 times a night for a Pee, and is struggling to control his bowels).

Last year when I was on the Radiation, I was heavily affected by fatigue and my stream was down to a trickle.  One year later, I'm still not anywhere near I was before, no stamina, no energy.

Not everyone suffers from side effects though.  Quite a few men I have spoken to haven't had any.  

What does your Oncologist say about the Radiation treatment?  If he/she recommends it, I would go for it.

See what others have to say.

Best of luck.

Hello Avila. It’s worth mentioning that everyone’s experience is different. My details are on my profile. My biopsy was early October 2021 and the PET scan was later that month. 

I am on Prostap injections (since late November 2021) and I had twenty fractions of radiotherapy in July 2022. My understanding is that there is no hurry for the radiotherapy to begin for a few months once you are on Prostap. The process is rather drawn out. The prostatecancer.co.uk site is helpful. 

I have had virtually no bowel or bladder problems and I found the radiotherapy process to be quite manageable. I walked the mile and a half to the hospital every day. 

The one side effect which is still troublesome three months on is the profound fatigue. It came on suddenly three weeks after the radiotherapy had finished. It means that I have to nap during the day. I tend to get depressed and I can currently only walk a couple of miles every day instead of four. I understand that I will just have to be patient. At times it does make me feel under the weather, as it is quite debilitating, but I do not regret the decision. 

I send you my sincere best wishes.

Hi Avila  Hormone treatment should keep the the tumour from growing and help shrink it down as well, but hormones alone won't get rid of it so RT is best at some stage. RT doesn't normally produce side effects long term so u should be fine.

If you really don't fancy it them some people can survive for years on hormone therapy so u could just take your chance and see what happens but the HT could fail eventually although there may be other treatments by then.

Best wishes

Steve 

Hi

I agree with all the others. RT isn't too bad and, for me, so long as I ate what I was told to, all was fine.

Similar to the others, there was a 3 month delay between starting HT and then RT. 

The side effects of the HT ( Prostap) were far worse than the RT. No strength and lack of fitness are very frustrating - and still with me nearly 12 months after my last jab.

With regard to getting to the hospital, check with them as they should have transport to get you to appointments - well Poole do anyway.

Regards

Stuart

Hi Avila

As all have said, your team has done this many times, they factor in many things, age, health and being able to withstand some of the treatments, being an incurable I never accept life expectancy, I do my best to trust my team, always looking for that new treatment that will rid this awful disease.

Stay safe

Joe

Thank you Joe for taking the time to reassure me. I appreciate your comment and wish you well in your future treatment.

It was very kind of you to take the time to comment and your observations are very sensible. Thank you and all the best to you .

Thank you Federico. Your comments are most useful and helpful. I wish you all the best for further recovery.

You are quite right Grundo. Thanks for your comment, I will think deeply about it.

Hello Stuart,

Thank you for your comments, which give me a degree of confidence. I could do with a strict diet! The problem with transport is that the hospital spoken of is 40 miles from where I live. If I could afford it ,it would be simpler to stay there. Anyway we will se what happens. 

Best of luck to you, and get fit soon.