chemo or not

Just been told by the hospital that my first session of chemo will be next Thursday, 7th September. If I manage to stick it out, my 6 sessions could be over by Christmas, but I think they also said that about World War 1! Wish me luck.

Some of the members on here who opted for early chemo have had amazing results. Some have continued working throughout and not many have had horrendous side effects. Presumably if you started chemo and found it too tough you could call a halt. Perhaps worth checking with the specialist?

Thanks for the advice.

Since posting, I've made the decision to have the chemo now rather than wait. It seems to make sense in the long run.

I began taking the hormone pills 3 days ago and will have my first Prostap jab in 11 days time.

Will try and make regular postings as to my progress, once I hear back from the hospital.

Cheers

Brian

Skellyboy, you will have a briefing session with an oncology nurse who will give you some steroids (dexamethasone) to take on the day before and day of your first scheduled infusion. The nurse will probably book the first three sessions. When you go in for your infusion, you will be seated comfortably in an armchair and a cannula attached to the back of whichever hand has the straighter veins. First of all you have a five minute saline flush then some anti-nausea drug goes in with more saline fluid, then about an hour's worth of docetaxel, followed by another flush. Then you go home, perfectly able to walk normally and drive. You'll have some anti-nausea pills to take for a couple of days after the infusion and some others to use if those aren't enough. Also, you'll be taking 10 mg of prednisolone (another steroid) daily until you finish the six cycles. You will have a blood test a couple of days before your next infusion and see your oncologist or a nurse to check on how it has gone. If all is well and it usually is, the cycle repeats every three weeks.

You'll be given a leaflet telling you about the treatment and possible side effects. Most men find these a nuisance, some find them a bit unpleasant but rarely are they disabling.

I hope all goes well for you.

AC

My husband has had his 4th session today and so far not too bad. A few bad days but that was mostly from other treatments at the same time. Hopefully all will go well for you.

Chemo update

Had my second cycle of chemo on Friday. It went very well and I'm feeling good. I've been taking Movocal to ease the constipation and it looks like it's doing the trick. The steroids are making me feel quite energetic and I have a good appetite, although some foods are tasting a bit weird. For instance, I like a nice strong cup of "builder's" tea but as I've got a sweet taste in my mouth and don't take sugar in my tea, it's rather spoiling the flavour. But hey, that's a small price to pay. I also find it hard to concentrate on doing one thing and seem to get easily distracted; the steroids again, I guess. 

To avoid my white blood cell count from crashing again, I have been given a 7 day course of G-CSF injections which I can do at home. I freaked out when the nurse told me that I had to self-inject, as I'm not a big fan of needles (who is?) but it's a piece of cake and quite painless. The consultant said he prefers to give me the injections than reducing the dosage of Docetaxel.

So now I'm trying my hardest to stay away from infections and continue the way I'm going. It's like being in quarantine! 

I'll post another update in a while.

chemo update

Had my third cycle of chemo on Friday. It's going well although the salty taste in my mouth is worse than it was before. I've been drinking lots of fluids to keep the constipation at bay as that was what landed me in hospital after cycle 1. I'm continuing with the 7 day course of injections after the chemo, to keep my white blood cell count up as this clearly helped me last time. I know that the consultant doesn't want to lower the dosage of Docetaxel unless he has to. 

We have two grandchildren aged 4 and 2 who we haven't seen in ages but this morning we had a web chat with them, which was great. Only it lasted an hour and a half and absolutely wore me out! The kids get so excited that our son has his work cut out to keep them under control.

So it's onwards and upwards. Three down and three to go.

All the best to those of you on the journey.

Brian

Brian,

Sorry to hitch a ride on your Chemo thread.

I am on my 2nd session of Chemo. I had 8 Cycles earlier this year which reduced my bone mets by 90% and my lung mets by 70%. I then had a 5 month Chemo holiday which was great, but unfortunately the blighters took advantage and returned, hence my return to the Chemo bus. I have just had my 3rd Chemo cycle of this session today (Chemo cycle No 11 in total) and my PSA is back down again to a much more manageable 2.4.

I am fortunate that I have very few side effects with the Chemo and I continue to work part time to keep my brain active although i tend to take the purder week of 7 TO 10 days post Chemo off as this is the most likely infection risk days according to my Oncologist.

My profile gives a better breakdown of my progress. I took the flue jab this year and I am also being encouraged to take the pneumonia jab also this year.

All the best Brian and I will follow your progress with interest and hopefully you can stay clear of those hospital visits as you go forward

Regards

Dave

Edited by member 08 Nov 2017 at 06:03  | Reason: Not specified