A newer phase in my Systemic treatment now with metastasis in bone

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  • Clevelandguy
    Clevelandguy Member Posts: 1,277 Member
    #62

    Hi All,

    Happy New Years to all the survivors on this site, keep asking the questions and sharing the info, that’s how we learn & cope. And Vasco, continue on your journey and sharing your wisdom, enjoy life the best you can. Keep on keepin on………

    Dave 3+4

  • VascodaGama
    VascodaGama Member Posts: 3,731 Member
    #63

    getting old is not for suckers

    Thank you everybody for the good wishes. After all, we are just a bunch of survivors trying to be helpful to the others. I like it that way. Well, I am getting old too.

    My wife's Christimas card says that we move along like the Port wine. As we age we get better 😌.

  • VascodaGama
    VascodaGama Member Posts: 3,731 Member
    #64

    To all fellow members,

    I had a cysto-ureteroscopy today. This was ordered by my NHS oncologist 8 months ago 😄. The European NHS is so congested with Ukrainian soldiers that, unless you are dying, you will be put on a list without a precise date for when the intervention is done.

    The need was to find a reason for the blood in my urine (three occasions) and the unexpected incontinence. Surely this was also to identify any possible PCa metastasis at the bladder's walls and ureters.

    I will get the full report in my next meeting with the urologist scheduled for Feb 13th. Meanwhile, the two specialists doing the intervention said that "...the bladder doesn't look well. It could be bladder cancer" 😬. Surely they saw a lot of scar tissue from the radiation of 2006.

    Otherwise, nothing else on the upper levels of the uretra and in the urethra. They say "...didn't find any thing unusual there". The little tumors in the urethra (identified in a previous 2022 multi-5T-MRI and FDG PET) "...were also non-existent". 👏👏

    Well, I signed the papers to have a TURBT (transurethral resection of bladder tumor/scar tissue). In other words "Scraping the Bladder", that refers to a surgical

    procedure to biopsy and remove a bladder tumor. This requires a two weeks stay in the hospital.

    Hard to believe but the remission, undetectable PSA <0.01 ng/ml was achieved by the combi Erleada (apalutamide) + the Eligard (leuprolide). Could this mean PCa cure or just a long "nap" taken by the bandit.

    Just a side note on the Erleada, that has interfere with my medication for BP and statins leading to dangerous levels of blood pressure and cholesterol.

    The oncologist recommended me to double the intake of Valsartan (+ the diuretic Hydrochlorothiazide) and the Simvastatin.

    As we survivors know, treatments got the goodies and the baddies. Let's be vigilant and hopefull for positive successes.

    Best to all

    VG

  • Josephg
    Josephg Member Posts: 493 Member
    #65

    Hi Vasco,

    Thank you for your update, and I'm sorry to read that your bladder issues continue. I hope that the biopsy results come back negative. I had a number of bouts of hematuria in the years following my IMRT sessions, as well as a bladder biopsy. The biopsy came back negative, and the bouts of hematuria eventually subsided.

    I'm glad that the most important measure, your PSA, is still undetectable, and let's hope that it stays that way. I will toast your good PSA news with a glass or two of red wine.

    And, you are absolutely correct in that our PCa journeys contain both goodies and baddies.

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