HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Looks like HT in my future. Will I be able to continue working?

Support Forums
>
Prostate Cancer
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 7/5/2011 5:43 PM (GMT 0)

Post RP 2009 and failed salvage radiation summer 2010 my PSA continues to rise from undetectable in Jan '10 to .9 at my last test in June '11.  My uro believes we'll be headed for hormone therapy in a year or so. We'll meet with an oncologist after my next PSA in three months and see what's what.  I'm ready to do what I gotta do, but my question for those of you who have been here is how debilitating is the treatment.  Will I be able to continue to work at my job- high school English teacher(part-time these days)- continue with a relatively normal lifestyle? or does this knock you on your butt? My uro says return to school in Sept and just keep doing what I'm doing.  Advice and counsel here is always so helpful. Thanks 

Posted 7/5/2011 6:01 PM (GMT 0)
Teacher,
It is difficult to predict how the side effects (SEs) of HT will affect you. Some men experience many while others experience few. There are actions that ameliorate some of the side effects. I worked 2 years after androgen deprivation and fatigue was my main SE (affecting work). Read: tinyurl.com/439bteb for information about possible SEs.

Wish you the very best possible outcome.

RalphV
Posted 7/5/2011 6:11 PM (GMT 0)
English teacher:

Other more knoweagable than myself will soon be on to help. In the meantime, here is my take:

After about a month on HT, your sex life will start to go to hell. You will most likely experence hot flashes (more of an irritation than anything). Otherwise your life will continue as usual.

HT (ie Lupron) causes the testes to stop producung testosterone. Meaning that the libido no linger functions. That's why it is called, "Chemical castration".

Try to get your doc to go with intermittant therapy - One year on and than a vacation until PSA rises again. This will give your body a chance to regroup.

You have plenty of time to think about it, so read up on as much info as you can.

Good luck,

Don K.

Posted 7/5/2011 8:04 PM (GMT 0)
My doc mentioned intermittant. This guy's no sugarcoater and he said I could expect side effects. He also told me he's got a guy with a way-high PSA on hormones who is training for a thiathlon. My GP tells me he's got an 80 year old waterman here on the Chesapeake with very advanced disease who still gets up every morning and works the water, no easy job. I don't know if these docs say these things just to be encouraging or if they're for real. Nice to hear , though.
Posted 7/5/2011 10:21 PM (GMT 0)
English:  A lot of it depends on you, attitude matters but so does exercise.  I'm coming off of 2 years on HT, my biggest issues have been lack of libido, 5 lbs. of weight gain and some general fatigue.  I've tried to stay active as much as possible which I believe really helps.  Intermitent is the only way to go so you have something to look forward to.

If you consider it a "death sentence" it will be.  Hang tough.

Good luck

David

Posted 7/5/2011 11:05 PM (GMT 0)
It's a time thing...The longer you are on ADT, the more pronounced the side-effects become..The intermittent treatment sounds good, but in practice....The problem being it takes several months for the effect of the ADT drugs to wear off. "T" recovers slowly...By the time you start feeling better, in many cases, the PSA level requires you to go back on the Lupron. So you are on a roller coaster...

Continuing to teach would probably be a great idea..Keeping yourself busy and occupied is important...The side-effects of ADT are manageable especially if you are aware of what to expect...

Best of luck to you..
Posted 7/6/2011 2:02 PM (GMT 0)
I have been on HT for ten months and it has not impared my work life. It has given me hot flashes at times and I have gained some weight. I am offsetting those with an improved exercise routine and it is having a positive effect. Personally, it has shut down libido, but not ability.

I would not expect you to have any trouble working. Essentially you will go through what every woman goes through with menopause, except your side effects will end when you stop the HT. It really has not been a problem.
Posted 7/6/2011 6:42 PM (GMT 0)
Teacher:

I have only posted a couple of time, but have been reading the forum for a while, I thought I should start to contribute since reading the posts seems to help me when I get down. It helps because I know I am not alone in this battle. Anyway...

I am coming up on a year of HT and I am getting what seems to be the standard set of side effects: Hot flashes, fatigue, joint pain, and of course..some weight gain (8 lbs). For the most part the Hot Flashes are more of an annoyance, which I am getting used to, the Fatigue I fight off by going to work everyday and going to the gym at least 3x a week. The joint pain is intermittent by manageable, I just take over the counter Arthritis (sic) meds.

Keep yourself active and positive, even though it is hard to. I believe that working out is the best thing we can do while on HT, it has a positive effect on your psychie (sic) and weight.
Posted 7/6/2011 7:01 PM (GMT 0)
Englishteacher,
I like what Jerseyguy posted. Some of the SE's of ADT are psycological and having a positive attitude goes a long way in dealing with SE's. Within a year of starting my HT I was getting too emotional to even moderate this board. But I changed my attitude about how I was going to get through this therapy and it worked. I was able to attribute any depression or emotion to "it's just that drug" and many things improved. There are certainly many SE's to the drugs but as Ralph mentioned we can't predict which or how much of a side effect we might experience, but we can try to be prepared for them...

Some of the best ways I know that worked for me are exercise and recognition that they will just happen. At that point I managed the SE's well and did not miss a single day at work...


Tony
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply