Dad diagnosed and had open prostatectomy

It does seem that your dad has a particularly determined form of prostate cancer but try not to let your worry overwhelm you - we have men here who have done well on abi or enza for two or three years so all is not lost yet. I think I would want to see the oncologist rather than settle for the views of that nurse again though.

The cancer is unlikely to be making him tired if his PSA is only 2.7 so it is most likely to be the hormones, particularly as they added bicalutimide recently. But don’t always assume that everything is cancer related - has he checked he isn’t anaemic?

I doubt very much that it could stop the holiday - even if the oncologist responded with blue flashing lights and said ‘let’s go for chemo’ I don’t think anyone would say it had to be done immediately. Some oncologists would wait until the PSA goes higher before introducing another new treatment.

I would definitely be pushing for a new scan though.

Edited by member 22 Oct 2018 at 21:54  | Reason: Not specified

AC

This is what a quick search pulled up

https://community.prostatecanceruk.org/search?search=anti-androgen+withdrawal&advanced=false#0|10 

Hopefully he will feel in more of a holiday mood in a couple of days; UTIs do make people feel very unwell.

well, what a terrible 11 days we have just endured as a family. Initially my dad was admitted to hospital as per my previous post with sepsis, however his blood pressure was dangerously low so he was sent for a CT scan and at that point they found a bleed in the muscle in his back and an infarction and clot at his kidney. There was no sepsis. By this point he was very ill and had to be given blood and blood products as he was still actively bleeding. The consultants could give no explanation as to why this has happened.

In hinsight now my dad has been very tired for weeks and I kept advising him to have his iron levels checked but the practice nurse wasn’t authorised to do this when doing his blood for PSA checks. He had also been having some pain on his back but assumed this was from doing DIY (prob doing too much). He was feeling bloated but again attributed this to lymphedema.

we later found out all these symptoms were from him bleeding. He was admitted to adult critical care and given more blood. We Were then told there was a vascular procedure available but unsure if he was suitable. The next devastating news was that if he didnt get this and the bleesong didnt stop then there was nothing more they could do.

he was suitable and went for the procedure, however wasn’t actively bleeding so they couldn’t see where to plug but inserted 15 coils to vessels in the area they had seen the bleeding on the CT.

He survived the procedure and kept in critical care for a few days receiving 14 units of blood in total and released from hospital yesterday. He’s knackered and worried now and we Were told there had been nodules found during the CT.

has anyone experienced anything similar. They havent directly attributed this incident to the cancer but did say his vessels may have been weakened with radiotherapy. His kidneys took a hit too. He’s never had any monitoring of his kidneys or liver throughout his treatment, which I think he should have.

sorry this is so long but I’ve tried to summarise