Hello all,
My name is Rod, and I was first diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer in May 2012 at the age of 58, after a few months trying to figure out what was causing the various pains I was getting in my groin and buttock area. As I was a long term sufferer from back and muscle problems, after spending way too much time on the football fields and squash courts of Worcestershire and California up until the age of 50, it took a lot of failures of physios, osteopaths, chiropractors and masseurs, to convince me that something more sinister was causing the problems. I had also been suffering from discomfort when riding my bike since a cycling holiday in France in September 2011.
My PSA went up from 3 to 6 over a couple of months, and this triggered a biopsy which showed me to have a Gleason score of 9, and further scans showed metastases in my lungs and hip.
The initial treatment was a Zoladex hormone implant, which appeared to do the trick for 6 months, and even got rid of some nagging back pain that had been bothering me for a long time. However, a deterioration in my urinary situation and a rising PSA indicated that it was no longer working.
Next up was a schedule of 10 doses of docetaxel chemotherapy, one every 3 weeks. I tolerated the chemo fairly well, with no sickness and little nausea, but each dose did take a longer recovery period before my energy returned.
Initially my PSA dropped to less than 2, but after 9 doses, it began to rise again and scans showed that the chemo was no longer having the desired effect on the cancer in my hip, so the course of treatment was stopped.
The next treatment was daily Enzolutamide capsules. After 4 months of these, further scans showed that this new drug was actually having very little effect and the cancer had spread more into my bones. I was getting pain from my hip and was struggling to walk.
My consultant, Professor James at the QE hospital in Birmingham, wanted to start me on radium 223, but a call to the Bayer representative confirmed that no stocks were available, so it was back to chemotherapy, this time cabazataxel, again for 10 doses, one every 3 weeks, also with doses of Zometa every 4 weeks to keep my bones strong.
So far I’ve had 2 doses of the new chemo, and it has helped my hip pain, and once again I’ve had few problem with sickness or nausea, but my energy levels have been really low, and my PSA level is rising alarmingly to close to 200.
So that’s my story so far. I hope this info is useful to some of you, and if there are any queries I can try to answer, please let me know.