Hi brothers and sisters,
It's been a few months since I last posted but I wanted to finish the Xofigo Tx before I contributed anything more on the subject. I had a visit with my MO this AM to go over the results of the six month Tx and all has worked out in my favor. I stopped posting about
my experiences because each one month injection was exactly like the previous . . . No SEs except for fatigue. Well, today I found out that I wa an exception to the rule, the other three guys that were going through Xofigo along with me all had to leave the program early due to depleted red blood cell counts, anemia. This was the major cause of my fatigue but I never crossed the line into dangerous territory.
Previous to this treatment I was having some serious issues with bone pain from small mets, this pain has been relieved and I have even cut my opioid pain reliever Rx by half. Besides anemia the other most common SEs from radium 223 are nausea and diarrhea, none of us four candidates reported any problems of this sort.
As far as recommending this Tx goes I have these caveats. I have been, and still am being, treated with Lupron for over eight years now and it's tendency to cause anemia did not interfere with my reaction to Tx, this might not hold true for all individuals. The Tx itself is very expensive, my clinic charged Medicare $57,400 a Tx. I was charged nothing but if you are on a deductible type insurance policy or have a % copayment watch out. The treatment itself is quite simple, consisting of placing an IV setup and then a slow, one minute, injection. That's all there is to it. I feel that the Tx was beneficial and had no serious effect upon my ongoing health problems. The fatigue did cut my daily walks in half but I'll soon be back up to my regular 45 minutes a day which is my limit. I hope that this helps any of you considering Xofigo or radium 223. Any comments would be welcome . . . Q
