PSA 1524 Guess I'm doomed.. now what? Quality of life, letting my family and friends know

Wanttoknow

Kimken said:

New
This is my first post. My husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer in May of this year. His original gleason score was reported as a 10. His radiation therapist has his gleason recorded as a 9. We are told he has one of the most aggessive types of cancer there is. He was advised against having surgery and instead he will take hormones for two years and eight and a half weeks of radiation. He is currently in his fifth week. It's encouraging to read all the positive prognosis.

Hormone Therapy
Kimken:
My doctor is suggesting Hormone therapy as my next course of action. I am reluctant because of the side effects. Can you enlighten me as per your husband's experiences. Hope all is going well.
J

griff 1

2ndBase said:

Tips
I am in hospice care with terminal prostate cancer and my advice would be to get all the stress out of your life and it sounds like you already know this. I would not wait to let them know you have a problem and then get a handle on the diagnosis. When told I had maybe a year to live it was expected but still a little surprising. I do not believe it and know I will be here much longer than that. I am still working a couple of part time jobs that I totally enjoy and play golf and garden every day a can. Your friends and family will not consider you a burden and you will need some help at times as you move forward.
I am concerned for my wife as all this goes down and we are making plans to simplify the process. There are many hard choices in dealing with death but they are better made today while we see the grass from the top side.
Your biopsy will give the doctors alot of info as to what they think and then it is all up to you. I chose the minimum amount of treatment and am happy I did. Because my cancer had already spread before the biopsy I absolutly believe I would have been better off with no treatment whatever. Since we can not go back I am still very happy I chose quality of life as my main goal. I have survived nearly 7 years with a diagnosis of a 50% chance to survive two years. I hope your future is all you hope for.

2ndbase
how are you doing, i hope good. i,m glad you are happy with what you decided. good luck to you griff

Life Explorer

Wanttoknow said:

Hormone Therapy
Kimken:
My doctor is suggesting Hormone therapy as my next course of action. I am reluctant because of the side effects. Can you enlighten me as per your husband's experiences. Hope all is going well.
J

Hormone Therapy
This is my first post, but wanted to respond to your question about side effects during hormone therapy. My husband has been on Lupron since March of 2010. (He had a radical prostatectomy when his psa was 5.3. His gleason score was 8 and he had a positive lymph node. He started on lupron 12 weeks after surgery because his psa 6 weeks after surgery was 0.08 and then it jumped to 0.12 after another 6 weeks.)

The side effects that drive him crazy are dry mouth, hot flashes and impotence. The hot flashes are the worst, but they have improved over time. He tells me that all these side effects are a small price to pay for keeping the cancer at bay. I couldn't agree more.

Best of luck to you and everyone on this site!

PA_grandma

Life Explorer said:

Hormone Therapy
This is my first post, but wanted to respond to your question about side effects during hormone therapy. My husband has been on Lupron since March of 2010. (He had a radical prostatectomy when his psa was 5.3. His gleason score was 8 and he had a positive lymph node. He started on lupron 12 weeks after surgery because his psa 6 weeks after surgery was 0.08 and then it jumped to 0.12 after another 6 weeks.)

The side effects that drive him crazy are dry mouth, hot flashes and impotence. The hot flashes are the worst, but they have improved over time. He tells me that all these side effects are a small price to pay for keeping the cancer at bay. I couldn't agree more.

Best of luck to you and everyone on this site!

Early hormone therapy side effects
My 79 year old husband was diagnosed with advanced PC and had his first (double) Firmagon hormone injection on October 16th.

The immediate side effects were a bit startling.
Lethargic and sedentary
Hot flashes alternating with chills
Night sweats
and
Taste buds affected.

They have diminished somewhat slightly these past two weeks.

My husband will see his Urologist this afternoon for the update on a second lymph node biopsy. The first was 'inconclusive'... but we expect the report has found there is involvement. We were told that if this is the case, that hormone therapy is the only course of treatment. Surgery and or radiation would not be an option.

We have told family and close friends about this diagnosis, and don't (as yet) regret this decision.