Father diagnosed recently

Thank you for your replies.I am a male and I have a sister.Unfortunately I have the cancer of psyche schizophrenia but I battled it very well.
But now I have my insecurities on how I can manage it and offer help without be a further burden.
Until now I am his companion on his appointments.

@goutzi That's actually one of the most important things you can do. Appointments are stressful times, and having someone there with a pen and notepad to write things down can capture a lot of information that might slip a person's mind afterwards. You free the patient up just to talk with the medical team without worrying about remembering details.

And on a personal note, I think you're being unfair to yourself calling schizophrenia a "cancer of the psyche." I understand that — like cancer — it's difficult to manage and adds friction to your life, but it's also part of who you are, and you don't have to feel bound by the norms of neurotypical people. If you take a close look at yourself, there are probably some things that you can't do as well as neurotypicals, but other things that you can do much better. Don't forget to celebrate your strengths. 🫂

@goutzi And on the principle of "Put on your own mask before assisting other passengers" (as they say in airline safety briefings), I wonder if you might find some useful support for yourself in these other groups:

Caregivers: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/caregivers/

Mental Health: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/mental-health/

It's very likely there are others in very similar situations to yours, living with schizophrenia while trying to care for an ill parent, and they can share experiences that most of us here don't have.

Best of luck!

After 1,5 month on orgovyx the PSA of father is 1,5 from 46.
He is functional until now with no side effects.
The oncologist suggests putting him on another androgen medicine and probably on radiotherapy after some months.
Is that positive?

@goutzi Yes, that's very positive news. The dramatic PSA drop means that your father's prostate cancer is castrate sensitive, and that allows for more aggressive treatment with "curative intent," even if, officially, stage-4 prostate cancer can't be cured

Best and latest standard of care for metastatic castrate-sensitive prostate cancer (mCSPC) is to add an androgen-reception signalling inhibitor (ARSI) to the patient's ADT, and to use radiation on the individual metastases (metastasis-directed therapy, or MDT). It sounds like that's exactly what your father's oncologist is recommending.

The oncologist may also suggest radiation to the prostate itself (prostate-directed radiotherapy, or PDRT). It used to be that they considered it useless treating the prostate after the cancer had already metastasised, but recent studies have shown a significant benefit from PDRT if the metastatic cancer is still castrate-sensitive, as your father's is.

I had the same treatments they're proposing for your father — ADT, ARST, MDT, and PDRT — and 5 years later, my stage 4b prostate cancer remains undetectable.

Best of luck!

@goutzi
If he’s only been on hormone therapy and has not had the prostate treated, than it is necessary to do radiation to really resolve the problem.

Going on Orgovyx Doesn’t kill the cells it will just shrink them and they will come back if you don’t have radiation too.

The treatment plan sounds good, time for radiation so that PSA can go down even more.

Five sessions of SBRT radiation works really well for somebody that does not have spread outside the prostate.

@goutzi
Those are very good results and treatment plan sounds correct.
I just wanted to say that my husband is 70 and is on 2 ADT drugs and is currently going through radiation therapy and he not only does not need any help , he is working full time and is absolutely living normal life and on some days has more energy than me or my 31 year old daughter. That said, everybody is different but as you already mentioned that your father is tolerating the first drug well, he will probably do fine on the second one too but try to ask for newer drugs (like Enzalutamide of Daroluramide).

In regards to your mental issues I want to say that you are an amazing person !!! Schizophrenia is very, very challenging and serious disorder but you are controlling it so well which shows your amazing fortitude and discipline. Just be careful not to miss taking medications due to stress and new challenges which sometimes can happen. You really need to take good care of yourself in this situation.

Wishing you and your whole family peace and healing 🍀