Husband is on Decapeptyl, 9 weeks in, and doing quite well. Keeping active, walking as usual. The plan is to put him on Apalutamide too before RT in June/ July, 20 sessions. Two years of HT hopefully.
After just 21days on Decapeptyl his PSA had dropped from 7.1 to 1.7
However he had an annual review at the GP and they are trying double the dose of Ramipril for his BP, from 5mg to 10mg. He takes his BP himself and chats to the pharmacist.
He had an oncologists appointment a few days later and explained this, and was told they'd just leave the Apalutamide for a while until his dose stabilised. Since then, nothing. He has got an appointment with the pharmacist to discuss how thats going next week, and generally it is now in the normal range. ( BTW I have a severe phobia about BP, can't look at the machine, and have a very understanding GP, same one as husband, who I've asked not to tell me the numbers. So I'm trying hard not to project my phobia into this situation.)
How is the BP on Apalutamide controlled? Presumably differently for different people. I feel it's best he takes it to help the treatment a success and we'll tackle the side effects.
Also if anyone else has concerns about their love life, that is going as well as possible. As a wife of someone on HT, I still feel loved and wanted. I am reassured all the time. The fact he just uses the pump, etc to me shows a commitment to keeping our relationship going, and also helping keeping healthy for the future. We need to stay positive through this.
He's mentioned it several times to clinicians at the hospital and been ignored totally, and so have I, but last time a different consultant did acknowledge his feelings. We'd agreed to focus on his PC treatment, and at the end my husband added he wanted to keep his sexlife going as much as possible as it was important to both of us, and he listed what he was doing. Sildenfil from GP, a Somaerect pump he bought himself, and the NHS Squeezy app. All information found and instigated by ourselves. Consultant said it all seemed very sensible and was something he would discuss again.
Nurse we saw ignored it and almost laughed. She actually said, "well you've still got the radiotherapy, and you can always have a cuddle. " She was a masterclass in trivialising a patient's serious legitimate concerns, and insensitivity.