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End of Radiation
Completed yesterday: 28 sessions (Rad Onc's advice) of EBRT/IMRT/VMAT on a Varian Truebeam CT-Linac with CTCB Image guidance, SpaceOar and tissue markers. Go Photons. Beam on for 3 minutes each session.
Mild acute side effects. Didn't find bowel/ bladder protocol difficult. Began speaking in sentence fragments.
In 3-5 years (someone refresh my recall) I'll know if it all worked... perhaps.
Now, Counting down the days to the last Orgovyx tablet. Only side effects: low/no libido, visceral fat accumulation, modest TG boost
I have a prescription for a 12-week cancer rehab/ reconditioning program. Will soon be strong like bull.
And I hope to get on a GLP-1 program. (Already hit the max on the Part D plans paying for Orgovyx, so drugs are no cost now for rest of year)
Cheers everyone
Age: 70, tc2, GG3, 4+3, PSA 8, low-volume disease
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Congratulations! Great attitude, praying for your recovery!
Congratulations! I celebrated the end of my radiation with pizza and a T-Bone. (My digestive system was not happy. 😒)
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2 ReactionsCongrats! 🔔
Yeaaaayyy !!! : )))
CONGRATS !!! May this be the true and forever end of you PC 🍀✨ !
Thanks for sharing since my husband will probably have salvage soon and he is your age so it is encouraging to know that side effects are not that bad. He is still working so it is a big concern for us.
Wishing you all the best 🌺
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2 ReactionsGreat News - hoping for a QUICK rebound for you.
Phil
I'm interested in more details about the "12-week cancer rehab/ reconditioning program". Who prescribed it? Who with? What does it involve?
@climateguy my radiation oncologist prescribed it. The vendor of my choice. I'm gathering info now, leaning towards a hospital PT program. It is supposed to address ADT weight gain, general deconditioning and fatigue
What we did a little differently is that I didn’t want to wait 3-5 years to see if my 28 proton radiation sessions + 6 months of ADT treatments were working. (Age: 65, GG3, 4+3, PSA 7.976, localized disease.)
So, I asked my medical oncologist if we could do a PSA test around the 1st day of treatments (near my 1st Eligard injection), around the last day of treatments, then 18 months later (at my 2nd Eligard injection), and then quarterly. She said yes.
That way I would have continuous insight as to how things were going. I charted the results at every PSA test. (See attached.)
So far, things have turned out exactly as expected.
Wishing you the best with your progress!
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2 Reactions@brianjarvis
This is neat graph : ))) ! I see that you were prescribed Casodex - did you have bone scan before it was prescribed or your doctor just thought it was good prevention ?
Thanks in advance
@surftohealth88 ADT (Lupron/Eligard/etc.) may cause a brief “spike” in testosterone which can result in what is called "tumor flare” or “testosterone flare.” This is not a good thing to happen since prostate cancer feeds on testosterone. (This may also cause a spike in PSA.)
However, this spike can be prevented by starting with Bicalutimide (Casodex) a short period of time before starting ADT, which blocks testosterone from attaching to prostate cancer cells, which reduces the risk of tumor (testosterone) flare when hormone therapy is started.
Tumor flare does not last long and will go away as the T level continues to drop.
(Firmagon and Orgovyx work via different mechanisms and don’t result in that T spike.)