first lupron injection mets to lymph

I think my SEs began about 10 to 14 days after the injection. Good luck!

took me 4-6 weeks to get into the side effects...and by that time my PSA dropped from 10 to .4

I had fatigue along with a slew of other SEs. Every hour I would wake up sweating - not getting a good night's sleep I think was a major contributor to my fatigue. My RO prescribed Effoxor (Venlafaxine) to moderate the sweats and after the dose was doubled, it worked very, very well.

about 4-6 weeks post HT shot for me.

Mel

good to know Thanks he may continue feeling good for a while

Thankyou Beth i ll look back again on the past threads i always get overwhelmed , distracted and then my head hurts I m sure you can relate i thrive on positivity but i d be lying if i did nt say i'm terrified of what will happen to him on this Lupron we ll get through it together somehow

Dear Jkorourke,
I am another wife of a gleason 9 and my DH has been on Lupron & Casodex for 2 1/2 years now. Like your guys, my husband doesn't want too much information, but like you & Beth, I wish I had known more when we started out. The guys who post here talk about the side effects of hormone deprivation therapy, but I think many of the wives try to hold back on discussing the reality of it so our guys won't feel any worse than they already feel, at least that's how it is for me. It may be hard to believe and it's a very big adjustment, but it does become the new normal. Best regards, Suzanne

PS Beth, good to hear from you. I think of you often.

jko, I have only been on L & C for 2 weeks, so probably not long enough, but only possible SE of going from constipation to loose stools. Some of this may be from RALP only 3 weeks ago?

From many threads, exercise is critical to counter act muscle and bone loss.

Hope his SEs are minimal?

My first hot flash was a month after the injection. They became my regular companion, about every 2 hours day and night.

I agree with the interrupted sleep being part of the fatigue problem. After a year or so though, the fatigue was relentless, nearly debilitating. I couldn't drive for more than 45 minutes or so before I had to nap a bit. Very strange.

Many other symptoms, as we've discussed here often. Loss of sexual ability, accompanied by loss of interest. It became as interesting as loading the dishwasher or mowing the lawn.

After 3 years as part of my initial therapy, we stopped the ADT. My testosterone has recovered fully. It's actually a good deal higher than my baseline.

It took me about 4 weeks as well to start the hot flashes...

They got worse over the last few weeks... and I'm dealing with exhaustion too...

Hopefully it will go away over time.

Good luck on your journey!

Zzarth

JK - I've been on Lupron for eleven months now, third six month injection and PSA scheduled for next month. Initial effect was a surge in sexual energy, the "Lupron flare", which subsided in about ten days. I've read that some physicians elect to pre-treat with two weeks of Casodex to prevent the flare, but mine did not.

Hot flashes and the associated night sweats crept up on me over the next few weeks and by six weeks became intolerable. At three months I begged my RO for help but that fell on unsympathetic ears. He told me to hire a personal trainer.

Which leads me to say that most of what I've read in this thread is spot on, with exception of the mention of exercise being a cure all for the SE's of HT. With two of the most common SE's being muscle loss and lack of interest or enthusiasm for just about everything, how is someone who already feels weak and fatigued and uninterested in practically everything supposed to suddenly become a mesomorph? It usually just doesn't work that way. If your husband is already so inclined, then then he has that to his favor.

In addition to the very common hot flashes, I was hit pretty hard by extreme moodiness. This affected me at a time when my life was already an emotional roller coaster. My GP was also unsympathetic. Through my own research I discovered Venlafaxine and shopped for a physician willing to prescribe this fairly innocuous medication. In addition to John's statement above I can attest to the efficacy of Venlafaxine in alleviating the frequency, severity and intensity of both the hot flashes and mood swings caused by HT, I would say by about 50%.

Additional medical issues which rose over the past year found me taking a fairly high dose of Gabapentin daily, which has further reduced the incidence of nighttime flashes and sweats, albeit at the cost of additional daytime drowsiness and lethargy. Why the medical community chooses to keep these treatments a secret is beyond me.

My wife of 37 years is a BSN/RN and was a CRRN at a rehab facility for nearly forty years before our recent retirement. She says that she has had patients on much higher doses than those that I've found to be effective. These are not drugs of abuse, and it is unfortunate that I had to endure months and years of anguish before - through my own advocacy, I was able to prescribe my own cure. Aren't doctors supposed to learn about this in medical school?

JkorourkeRN for husband said...
Venlafexine and Gabapentin are on the top of my list of med requests should these SE occur I will def make sure he gets them if needed this disease is a nitemare from day 1 I know everyone agrees! we ll just keep keepin on trying to keep it positive

My side effects started probably close to 4 weeks from the Lupron injection. The hot flashes where unreal some lasting 30 minutes. They where so bad i was ready to come off the lupron. I was put on Venlafexine 37.5 mg and worked my way up to 150 mg daily. The Venlafexine stopped working at about the 7 month mark and Gabapentin was introduced to me. I am now up to 900mg of the Gabapentin. I am still on the Venlafexine as well as i have no more hot flashes and did not want to screw up a good thing by coming off it.

I have noticed a loss of strength and lack energy. I am going to the gym twice a week to try and regain some strength. I do walk the dog for 30 minutes daily also.