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July 14 my husband Bob age 55 was diagnosed with prostate cancer. His psa count was 32.9 He is a great actor ..... i can't breathe.
A small portion has metastasized to his bones. He received his first lupron shot a week and a half ago. We were told to wait 2 months and see what his psa count is. They said he could be on lupron for 30 years if it works. If not ..... he has to have radiation beam.
Has anyone been here? I even adapted our eating lifestyle to the macobiotic way diet. I want to try to do all I can to help him. I will never let him see the hole in my stomach the size of Montana.
Has this hormone shot helped anyone out there with a 32.9 ? Can this be okay ? Thank you for your time and thoughts. ally
First things first. My PSA was 40.0 last August and I had a bone metastasis. I have had Zoladex (this works the same way as Lupron) shots every three months since then. My PSA at the last measure (I'm having another tomorrow) was 0.20. If my PSA is still low I'm stopping the Zoladex to see what happens.
You can read my story at the website above - as you will see I was diagnosed twelve years ago and I'm still going strong.
I don't know if you have been through the website, but if you haven't you should because it explains the basics of diagnosis and treatment. Once you've done that, start reading the stories of the men who have had what is termed hormone therapy - more properly called Androgen Deprivation Therapy (ADT).
If you go to HORMONE THERAPY you can read how the therapy works and if you go to ANDROGEN DEPRIVATION THERAPY you will find an index of men who have had ADT. Of particular interest is the story of TRUEMAN SEAMANS. He was diagnosed almost ten years ago and he had a PSA of over 4,000 - yes that's FOUR THOUSAND.
I'm not saying that your husband may not have a problem to deal with: I understand who you should feel so bad: but I also know that men have lived for many years with this kind of problem.
The more you learn, the better you'll feel. It is estimated that there are over two million PCa survivors in the US right now. With a bit of luck your husband will be counted among those for many years still.
Hormone therapy with Lupron wasn't offered to me as a long term treatment plan. I took monthly shots for seven months to reduce the size of my enlarged prostate so that I could get the radiation treatments.
The side effects of the Lupron were tuff ... hot flashes primarily. Couldn't get comfortable at all.
Good luck and, as Terry suggested, read the stories on this forum ... we've all been thru it in one form or another.
The others have given you some great advice but DON'T PANIC. Something to bear in mind is that, compared against other cancers, PCa is slow growing.
There are lots of tools in the box to treat the disease and many many people go on to survive for a very very long time in full remission.
Take a look at the toolkit on http://www.prostate-cancer.org.uk/info/publications_toolkit.asp it gives a comprehensive guide to all the available treatments. Seems that Bob is on Hormone Treatment (HT) and I have been on it for 3 years.
