Hormone Therapy and travel abroad

Hi Bob - get your foot to the floor and go!! HT affects us all differently and the side effects vary from person to person. I am 15 months into HT and it's not stopped me doing anything. Just a bit younger than you at 67 but flown abroad 3 times (twice with an indwelling catheter), in that period!

Yes the HT has given me a set of nice boobs (thanks NHS!), I have itchy skin, can cry for England, have ED (I would rather have a meat pie!) I have lost plenty of body hair, can be moody and the Manopause has caused me to gain weight (not the pies!).

At the end of the day I have finished my RT- The fatigue has almost gone and as the treatment was given as "curative" I have a lowish PSA of 1.37 I feel amazing.

Mrs Millibob also has her own medical issues but we travel quite a lot and have worldwide insurance - it did cost £1.4k but covers everything for both of us. 

I  hope this helps - anything else just ask - enjoy the holiday.

Kind Regards - Brian.

Hi Brian

Good to hear from you again. We were in contact when I first got my PSA result of 32. Again, your positive answer is a great help and I'm sure we have to go for it. Can you tell me where you got your insurance from? Glad to hear you are coming out the other side and are feeling well.

Regards

Bob

Hi Bob 

Yes, I thought I would stick around a bit and put back into this community as in all honesty the people on here have helped me through the 16 months of my "journey". I know it will never be over fully but as you say I am "on the other side". Like you it's not been a smooth ride and I feel great now - even with the manopause!!

We used All-Clear for our travel insurance. I filled in plenty of online forms but at the end of an hour filling in a form for each company as soon as the word cancer was mentioned it was "ring us for a quote". In the end I used our local broker (PM me for details if you want) I don't think I can put details up here. There is a forum on here called "travel Insurance for cancer patients" I have used that too.

At our age we like to travel and even though we have a place in Turkey we still like to get about - while we can - and 2022 was a bit of a "wake up and smell the coffee" year as Mrs Millibob had 15 weeks in hospital!!

You take care - anything else, give me a shout.

Kind Regards - Brian.

Hi Bob,

Sorry to hear of your diagnosis.  I'm a 76 year old Motorhomer with the same stats as you, although my PSA was only 10 (see my profile) and I'm probably not quite as fit as you as I suffer from arthritis. I received my diagnosis the day before a 3 week trip to Wales in July '22!

I started my Prostap on our return in August and the second jab in December. The worst aspect of HT for me was the fatigue and loss of muscle tone, despite going to the gym twice a week, together with the frightening increase in hunger and resulting weight gain (round the middle!!).  Most of the men on this chat room tend to be a bit younger than us and I've found some of their treatment choices have differed to mine.

I was offered EBR (External Beam Radiation) with 20 trips to hospital in 4 weeks!!  The side effects didn't sound great either.  Before my second consultation with an Oncologist I did my research and came across Brachytherapy (seed implants) a one-off treatment.  I found a very useful piece on the Prostate Cancer website:  https://www.prostatecancerfree.org/?s=Brachytherapy and this great leaflet by the Royal Berkshire: https://www.royalberkshire.nhs.uk/media/gc2l41tg/brachytherapy-treatment-for-prostate-cancer_jul21.pdf

After a session with a Urology consultant, who performs the treatment together with the Oncologist, I passing a fitness and flow test and I was placed on the waiting list in January '23 and had the op 2 weeks ago,  My chap confirmed what I had already read, that 80% of men remain PC free after 10 years - just hope I make it!! 

My advice would be to go on your trip. As you say you will be lucky to get insurance cover, but the Prostap shouldn't cause any serious problems and it will be slowing down the spread anyway. Yes, you will feel tired and a bit fatigued, which may get worse the longer you stay on it, but as my wife is always telling me - Pace Yourself!!

I'm now off the Prostap, thank God, and feeling much better - back to the gym this week and have booked a 6 week motorhome trip stating in June. Have decided to leave Europe until September. I was lucky enough to have had most of my Prostap during the winter and SORN'd the van from October this year. Now back on the road and raring to go.  Do get back to me if you have further questions or want to chat.

Take care,

Chris (Seajay)

Hello Bob, as I understand the insurance issue, you can get insurance for the PC so long as you are not awaiting any treatment other than hormone therapy.  We fell could have this with our bank annual travel insurance as my husband had started hormone therapy prior to starting radiotherapy 3 months later so that would not cover the PC until the radiotherapy was completed . He finished the radiotherapy and he is now fully covered by insurance. I know there are some specialist travel companies who will cover prostate cancer at all times but it’s much more expensive.  

I know that some people do go away without revealing the diagnosis but I dared not risk this as it could give the insurance company a get out clause if you need to make a claim. We all arrive at our own personal decisions on this, though depending on the level of risk we are happy to accept.

I did ask the oncologist what the potential risks of PC could be and how likely it was to happen. He told me that the main risk would be urine retention. We decided not to take the risk and travel without full insurance cover.

hth

Thanks Brian

I'll look at using a broker as, like you, I've filled in lots of on-line forms with "ring us for a Quote" and then no-one answers. Feel the need to get out there and travel so will probably risk it if I can't get cover. 

Sorry to hear about your wife, hope she is also on the mend. 

Not sure how I can PM you, is there an email address accessible through this forum?

Best Wishes

Bob

Hi

Thanks for this. My flow rate is quite good and starting HT is supposed to improve it. If I can't get cover, I'll have to accept the cost of catheterisation and probably return home if necessary. My insurance will cover everything except preexisting conditions, but the problem with that is that they will always find a way of linking what seems to be a totally separate issue with existing, and decline cover. 

Hope things are going well with your husband and life is less stressful for you.

Best

Bob

Good Morning Bob

I have a fee paying bank account (£13 Per month)  with Nationwide which along with travel insurance covers car breakdown, mobile phone loss/damage etc. I informed the insurance company about my PC (RT finished Dec 21 and last HT injection March 23)  before the holiday book to Lanzarote in Jan 23. and was informed by the insurance company that I would have to pay an extra £75 on top of my monthly fee to cover me for the year, I don't think that was a bad price to pay for piece of mind.

I hope this was of help to you

John.

Hello Chris

Many thanks for your very helpful reply. You had a better prognosis than me as my PSA is much higher and Gleason 4+3 but I have been looking at Brachytherapy as an option and will be very interested to know how you are progressing. Royal Berkshire leaflet is extremely informative.I have a video appointment with a consultant at the Royal Marsden next week specifically to talk about options following the prostap, including gold seeding for RT and Brachytherapy. 

Good to know that you don't think from your experience that Prostap should have too many side effects to prevent us going on our trip. We are both very active at the moment, but may have to let my wife go running on her own for a while!

Hope to keep in touch with you and my best wishes that things go well for you.

Bob

Hello John

Yes, I have the same account with Nationwide but they have refused to cover me this year as I also have other relatively benign conditions that I don't require any treatment for, but they will only cover 1 condition.  

They will cover me for everything else, so I may just risk it. 

Thanks for coming back to me

Regards

Bob