Hey
my husband was diagnosed stage 4 a year and a half ago and each test got worse and worse. First he just went to the dr because he peed often, thought it was just an enlarged prostate and getting older (55) and the dr agreed but did a PSA test just in case, it came back almost 300! CANCER! then he got a pelvic CT that showed it outside prostate, then urologist told us it's stage 4 and wanted to biopsy, gleason showed almost all 8 and 9s, then oncology wanted a PSMA scan and that showed it ALL over his body, not only prostate and that area but lungs, lymph nodes and bones! 30% make it 5 years with that diagnosis!
They started him in Firmagon right away (and meanwhile he googled everything and stuffed his face with lots of supplements like Ivermectin and Fenbentosol and more) well that wrecked his liver to the point of blood work showed liver failure! he felt fine and looked fine, but he quit the supplements and his liver returned to normal then they started him on zytiga and prednisone and over the summer he did docetaxel chemo! the PSMA in the fall, after the chemo showed great improvement and the most recent one this spring showed more improvement (not much compared to 6 months ago but still better)
He still gets his firmagon injections every month (didn't want to switch to Lupron) and takes his zytiga pills etc daily. He's always worked out- lifted weights and continue that, he's also eating pretty perfectly and does stuff around the house to keep busy.
Of course there's no sex life and he has hot flashes and night sweats, but so do I (48) so we got a bed jet recently and he's helped with night sweats but he still doesn't sleep well at all. I guess without testosterone you don't sleep well.... his PSA is 0.05 so that's good, though every month we're nervous because they initially guessed that ADT would work for 18months and then PSA would start going up again.
we'll see
It sucks and it's depressing! Some says I cry over it, some days I'm mad, some days I fret becoming a widow, some days he wants to end it so I can move on with my life and find someone else! It sucks!