Intermittent Hormome Therapy

Here's to the next holiday!  May it be soon in coming!

flexi

George may this time on be short. Don't forget your next target of 15 years.

Good luck

Ray

Great news George, shame the same can not be said about your football team http://community.prostatecanceruk.org/editors/tiny_mce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif

See you soon mate

Si x

Great news. So pleased for you George !

Fiona.

So, so happy to see this news George - I am almost excited enough to have a tipple on your behalf xxxxx

Arthur

Hi George,

Well done, I don't know about you, but I have found my second spell on HT a little easier to cope with than the first, it might be that I am on Prostrap at the moment as opposed to Zoladex, or that I am used to it now, but appart from the odd hot flush it ain't been to bad.

My last Prostrap is due at the end of November so I am looking forward to salacious thoughts returning in the new year, whether or not I will be able to do anything about them is of course a different matter!

As for footy, whilst I wouldn't wish your lot bad fortune, it is nice to see lots of teams competing to keep the Canaries off the bottom, most seasons we don't have too much trouble securing a place in the bottom 3, and if the inevitable happens life in the Chapionship isn't that bad because you get the chance to beat Ipswich!

:)

Dave

Great news George....your posts also offer hope and inspiration to others

Bri

Fantastic news from one of life's nicest people.

I baked the magic muffins for my brother to eat at half time but they didn't work on Sunday. Liverpool continue to frustrate had a word with John Henry while I was in Boston told him he needs to buy a striker ...he said his number one team have one but he plays for the red sox. I sometimes think we could do with a baseball player! !!

Xx

Mo

Hi George,

Don't ask me why, but I always feel a little guilty about taking up doctor's time, so I don't always ask the right questions, least wise once I get home from the doctors I often remember the questions I meant to ask!

Your points about Prostrap and low HB are interesting.

I had the HDR Brachytherapy in February, and when I went for my 'routine annual diabetes' check in March the nurse gave me a good bollocking about not always taking my tablets, the perils of diabetes etc, so I thought seeing as how PCa was on the back burner I would concentrate on sorting the diabetes, amongst other things I went on a low carb diet sort of 'Atkins meets Jane Plant' as much meat, beans, onions and greens, and salad as I fancied but not much else.

By July I was getting a bit if the intermittent bowel problems, taking liver salts four or five times a week, so I went to see the GP, its a group practice so she was new to me, she sent off blood to test, I am not sure what for, she phoned back with the results, said my bowels would be fine if I left the liver salts alone, but she went on to say that my haemoglobin was low, not quite anaemic but low.

It was only after the phone call that I realised she probablly didn't know I had had brachytherapy in February, and I guess that the radiation must knock back the haemoglobin.  thinking about it now I guess some of you more knowledgable blokes will say I am talking bollocks, but it sort of made sense to me at the time.

Since then I have had the prostate infection and been put on Tamsulosin, fallen over and had an ambulance ride because my blood presure was too low etc all of which I have covered in other posts.

The point is I have had lots of appointments recently all with different doctors, they have sorted me out, I no longer on blood pressure tablets because I no longer have high blood pressure, my diabetes tablets have been cut down by half because my blood sugar is low, and come my next test in december I may be officially not diabetic at all.

But with all of this going on I quite forgot to ask about haemoglobin, from what you say it could be linked to the Prostrap?

As I said, December will be my last Prostrap, least wise for a few years, so I don't suppose I will know what caused the haemoglobin problem unless it persisists, and I guess with all the tests I have had recently they will have looked at that, wouldn't they?  They would have told me if it was still low wouldn't they?  Or am I being naive?  

:)

Dave

Hi there George really pleased to read your news.

I don’t know where you get the courage or guts to take these hormone breaks. I’m presently on Prostap, have been for the past 9 months and things are going well, much better than on Casodex; however I’m really suffering badly from hot flushes. They keep me awake most of the night. I can’t remember them being this bad when I first started on Prostap.

As you know I’ve had both RP & RT way back in 2006, my PSA start to climb in 2010, which is when I joined this forum looking for help. My PSA peaked at 0.94 in Dec 2012, at which point I started on hormone treatment, the previous 6 years I didn’t do a thing. I thought that I’d got away with it and was on the cure trail, no such luck. Whilst on the HT my PSA has behaved pretty well. But I feel that I should try a break like you, but I simply haven’t the guts.

What was it that triggered you to stop the HT??

Apart from the hot flushes I feel just great, life couldn’t be much better.

Cheers,
Stu

Hi George,

Thanks for taking the time to give such a detailed reply. I'll refect on what you say, getting a CT scan isn't so easy here. My last scans were a PET and bone scan in Jan 2013, the bone was clear, but the PET revealed a small tumour, which was the start of my HT. To be perfectly honest I'd be scared to have another scan, I've been burying my head in the sand and relying soley on my low PSA results. I'll bring this up with my Urologist on Saturday. You must have a marvellous relationship with your Oncologist.

Cheers
Stu

Hi George,
So pleased IHT is working out well for you - no reason to change a good strategy.

First of all can I say thank you for posting your story. It has been really helpful, reassuring and informative for me and probably many others who look to this site for help.

Perhaps you ( and others) could comment upon our situation, in view of your experience of hormone 'holidays'.

In brief my OH was diagnosed in November 2011 as G 7 (3+4) N1 M0 PSA 3.6 Aged 61 at the time.

He started on the hormone medication Prostap January 2012 and had RT to prostate and pelvis autumn 2012, 37 fractions on IMRT machine.

he also entered stampede trial and had 2 years abiraterone. Completed this Summer 2014.

PSA dropped below 0.1 and tested 1-3 monthly since that time, remains at that level.

After now 3.5 years on Prostap the Onco has suggested that we stop taking it to see what happens.

Full bone scans were done initially upon diagnoses and repeated October 2014.

We were initially told that the hormone therapy would be long term, and sort of assumed that this would be forever. Is this the case normally that the Prostap is stopped after this length of time?

Any information would be welcome, as we are concerned about stopping it, but obviously worried about resistance to it too.

Alison

Hello George,
Just to wish you a smooth ride with IHT. Also to mention that Cyproterone Acetate is a steroidal antiandrogen and it can be metabolized to an androgen. It is fine to avoid the initial testosterone surge at the start of HT but you should keep an eye on your PSA drop. Also consider adding Avodart or Proscar to inhibit DHT. As always it is great to hear from you! We are all mourning Rob on our chat group...
Best regards,
RalphV

Edited by member 19 Sep 2015 at 19:05  | Reason: Not specified