Deleted

Jane

i had a prostatectomy, radiotherapy and hormone therapy.  I’ve been off treatment now since August.  Fatigue is a major issue for me.  I’m not at all surprised to read about how Jonathan is feeling.  PCUK does have a fatigue service - speak to the specialist nurses about it.

Ulsterman

Jane,
At the moment, he's in a double whammy of causes of tiredness.

HT causes tiredness, and the workaround for that is exercise. Indeed, exercise makes a big positive difference to many of the side effects. Many local prostate cancer support groups run weekly gym exercise classes cheaply or for free, and you should see if you can hook up with that.

The RT also causes tiredness because it will be lowering the red blood cell count (I lost 8% in 23 RT sessions, it will be more for someone on a full 6 week treatment). This will also make him feel tired, adding on top of the HT tiredness. This red blood cell count will take about a month to recover after the RT finishes, and until then, it's probably better to avoid any strenuous exercise, but some leisurely walking should be in order.

Must admit the fatigue is one of my biggest worries.  I go back Wednesday next week (8th) to "choose" my treatment path, but as the surgical team has already said they do not think that's an advisable option for me I'm going for HT/RT.  I live a solitary life so have to do everything for myself - shopping, cooking, laundry etc.  Plus I have an energetic Jack Russell that needs two good walks each day!  Hope your hubby comes out the other side ok.  Nothing associated with this illness is ever easy it seems.  All the best

Bean,
Not everyone gets severe fatigue - actually, I don't personally know any people on HT who have it. The biggest way to avoid fatigue on HT is exercise, and it sounds like you are already doing that with your dog walks, although you might think how you can step it up - the more, the better. Exercise combats many of the HT side effects.

You will get more tired towards the end of the RT, and this is probably due to a reduction in red blood cells (although there has been no research as to the cause). Again, if you are fit, the effect is lessened (I still rode my bicycle), but you probably can't plough on through that with high levels of exercise, and might have to slow down a bit, until your body replenishes the red blood cells (about a month).

You should start doing your pelvic floor exercises now, but I continued during the car journeys. It helps with continence in the latter half of your treatment and for a few weeks afterwards.

The journey just became routine (although I only had 23 sessions plus some other visits). I found I enjoyed the visits to the hospital - got to know some other wonderful patients in the RT waiting rooms, and the conversations in there are out of this world. The staff were delightful. There was a nice Macmillan cancer centre I went to sit in for 30-40 mins afterwards to let all the water through before I went home. I really missed it when it finished, as do many people!