First of all thanks for sharing your update. Decisions like this are tough to make. I wish you and your wife the best for your journey together. My wife is my single biggest advocate and I’m glad that you don’t have to face this alone.

I’ve had the triple treatment and am doing well. I hope you have the same experience. I won’t give medical advice but I’d like to share what I learned along the way:

Surgery was less scary than I expected. I was up and walking around the same day. I came home the next day. I was terrified about having a catheter. It was a bit uncomfortable and certainly inconvenient but it served its purpose allowing the anastomosis to heal. I felt like more like my old self in 6 weeks.

My oncologist wanted to put me on Lupron. I heard enough positive anecdotal stories about Orgovyx having less side effects such as depression, extreme fatigue, and hot flashes that I asked for it and my side effect experience has been better than my friends and acquaintances that had Lupron. I applied for financial aid and qualified so cost was/is not a barrier to its use. I’m also on generic Zytiga otherwise known as abiraterone Acetate. I buy it from Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus pharmacy rather than Walgreens or CVS. That reduced the cost to about $128 per month from over $500.

Salvage radiation went fine. I had to show up with a full bladder and an empty rectum and once I figured that out it was largely a non-issue. At the direction of my RO I went on a low fiber diet and stayed on it during all 7 weeks. Inexperienced mild diarrhea each day after the second week but a small dose of Imodium made that quite manageable. I experience some serious fatigue after the 4th week and rested when needed. The fatigue passed 3 weeks after radiation ended.

I believe that you’re going to handle treatment well. We’re here to listen and answer questions as best we can.

Again, good luck on your journey!