Are you taking Abiraterone...?

My second dose of HT Prostap injection is due 2nd October.As far as I know at the moment I will Start the Abiraterone around the same time -- and the RT of 20 doses over 4 weeks.

So far my side effects on Prostap alone have been minimal: hot flushes and possibly a slight increase in tiredness but that does not bother me.

I am very pleased that when I mentioned Abiraterone to my consultant he agreed it would work well along side the other treatments. But it does seem a lot for my body -- and mind -- to cope with...!

Have you made an dietary changes? There does seem to be a lot of items are out of bounds for me in October as I have a gassy digestion which must be avoided for the RT.

A lot to take in, but I`ll get there. I am fit and well and active have amazingly positive support from my wife. We are currently struggling to work out how to tell our children without alarming them.

Thanks for your reply. Much appreciated.

You’ll get the standard lectures about caffeine, alcohol etc, but I’ve not made any special dietary changes on account of being on HT & abiraterone.   I do try not to eat too much because it’s well known that people on HT tend to put on weight even more easily than the average person.  Another reason to try to be active and not just give in to lethargy. 

However the four weeks of radiotherapy are another matter.  I actually lost a little weight because of the disruption to eating patterns.   Each blast of radiotherapy takes only a few minutes  but you spend at least a couple of hours, usually longer,  at the hospital:

1.  Waiting your turn to be told to use one of the supplied mini-enemas, to completely empty your bowel.

2. After you’ve done that, you wait to be told when to start drinking cups of water;

3.  Drinking steadily to fill your bladder;

4. Waiting to be called in to have your bladder measured for how much urine it has accumulated;

5.  if your bladder’s found to be full enough, you then join the queue of people ready for the actual radiotherapy;

6  When it’s finally your turn, you’re called into the actual radiotherapy room, to be positioned very carefully on the trolley, and told to remain absolutely still for the next 20 minutes or so. 
7. The staff leave the room and the machine starts clanking and whirring, punctuated by long pauses.  After about 15 or 20 minutes there’s an even longer pause.  

8.  If you’re lucky, there’s then a loud clank followed by a fairly quiet, slightly high pitched continuous buzzing sound.  After maybe 4 minutes of this, it stops.  The staff then come back in and tell you you’re done, you can get off the trolley and out,  and the next patient can come in.

9.  If you’re unlucky, (8) doesn’t happen.  Instead the staff come in and say sorry, we can’t proceed because your bowel isn’t empty enough, or some gas has come into it from your intestines, or your bladder isn’t quite full enough.  During the 15 minutes you spent under the machine, your body parts were being measured and scanned, not irradiated.  You have to go back to the waiting room and use another enema before refilling your bladder, etc, as in all the stages listed above.  The radiotherapists get on with treating other patients and don’t wait for you.  But usually you will be given a second attempt in the machine within a couple more hours.   Unless the failed attempt was too near the end of the day, in which case you’ll have to be booked for an extra day at the end of your 20 days. 

I asked the staff for dietary advice to avoid that happening, I didn’t get a clear answer other than the obvious point, try not eat or drink anything gassy like baked beans etc during the 4 weeks of RT.