UPDATE
Hi to all again after almost a year
My father is doing good now
, we went trough a very difficult period since his surgery end of September 2018, but we are good right now and I wanted to share the progrees since i last wrote here.
The surgery was done 28th of September 2018, we were really hopeful that after the surgery the PSA would drop and that we can take a little break from all the stress, however that was not the case. The PSA right before the surgery was if i can recall right around 44, the doctor performing the surgery said that the biggest lesion was removed however there are few smaller ones involving the lymph nodes that he could not operate on, and that we should talk with our primary oncologist to see how he will proceed with treatment.
My father after the surgery was really exhausted and did not regain his fitness as we were expecting, by mid of November his PSA reached 88, it was really discouraging, he never let that get to him. The doctor probably also did not expected this as he was also puzzled how to continue with treatment, and what options should he offer to us, knowing that we have been trough all.
It was end of December that he ordered biopsy to the pelvic area he wanted to make sure that the rapid PSA increase was coming from the pelvic metastasis. I don't know what answers did the biopsy gave him, but after that he said we didn't have any other option than to re-challenge cabazitaxel. The start of the chemo was scheduled for January 8th 209 and his baseline psa was 108.
The re-challenger of cabazitaxel Jevtana we took it would be the same as he was on it 2 years ago, not having any issues than, however the first cycle broth so much nausea, vomiting that he was dehydrated and we needed to take him to the ER.The nausea would not stop I haven't seen something more scarier... When we went to see the doctor we were ready to give up (my father is a fighter but this was something out of all that he has ever been trough) I was with tears in my eyes when i told the doctor that i am scared to continue... his reply was that he is scared too (what a relief coming from our doctor) totally our of our mind we agreed to go with the second cycle, the second cycle even worse he collapsed from dehydration his blood pressure dropped so low that we had to call an ambulance - and spent a week in hospital. I was terrified! My father was not going to give up, and i am happy he didn't
the third cycle was prolonged by few days and he gathered his mental strength i don't know where he got it from
and the third cycle went as if he wasn't even on chemo I wondered/joked if they switched him to placebo.
We ended with the 6th cycle beginning of May, today's PSA is 3.8 and the doctor says its keeping stable the bone scan and the CT show improvement.
He is going hiking on the weekends - mild terrains but he is active and i am so glad he is enjoin the outdoors.
While we were going though this with my dad in the middle of the hard days my mom was diagnosed with endometrial cancer and had to go trough surgery and radiation.
I am so grateful that those days are over and looking forward to wonderful moments with my parents, the upcoming 70th birthday for my dad in September
P.S. our doctor mentioned that our option for the future would be LU-177
best wishes to all
Bianca
Post Edited (dime) : 7/31/2019 10:25:03 AM (GMT-6)