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Starting radiadtion treatment today & Drug question

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Posted 1/31/2013 11:53 AM (GMT 0)
I've been on Terazosin for flow, Casodex and Avodart for a month and had a 3 month injection of Trelstar on 1/24. Started on Boniva, vitiman D3 and a estrogen patch last week, Carafate and Trental yesterday, so loaded with various meds and ready to be"char broiled"

Oddly enough, I really don't feel any side effects from these medications, should I expect them anytime soon? Kinda waiting for the other shoe to drop

DART external beam. 140 mile round trip "commute" app 6 weeks
Posted 1/31/2013 3:19 PM (GMT 0)
good luck on your radiation voyage, hope that goes well for you too. that is one long drive to get there and back, that is going to fatigue you as much as the radiation.

david
Posted 1/31/2013 4:14 PM (GMT 0)
I was started on Lupron and Casodex and it took me 2-3 weeks before I started feeling side effects, mainly hot flashes.

Good luck with your radiation--I start this coming Monday so I'm right behind you. I was sweating my commute to UCLA each day, but it's only 35 miles roundtrip (albeit through horrendous traffic) and that's nothing compared to yours! All the best for your next six weeks and beyond.

Michael
Posted 1/31/2013 4:56 PM (GMT 0)
You can pick up my daily thread of my IGRT in my sig.

The drive for me was much shorter, but there was a lot of construction.

Suggestions:

1) find all reasonable restroom stops along the return route early on. My daily stop turned out to be a local grocery store with clean facilities. Even after emptying when I got off the table, I could not get the 20-30 minutes home without a stop.

2)Check on a local hotel just in case. There were days near the end that I could not have made that drive.

Posted 2/1/2013 10:35 AM (GMT 0)
I had some trouble with the carafate, as did most guys in my group. It tends to cause a lot of nausea. I was able to work with the staff and reduce my dose to a tolerable level.

You had also asked in an earlier thread about my Dattoli expierence. I was and continue to be very pleased with the facility and staff. Top rate. I will finish in March with my final 10 follow up DART treatments. Good luck with your treatments!
Posted 2/1/2013 11:28 AM (GMT 0)
Looks like you get a Phd. on drugs (piled high on drugs)-LOL! It takes a little while to enjoy the total side effects, and that estrogen patch helps combat some side effects and also builds bone density while LHRH and casodex help rob bone density (little detail that is seldom disclosed much). Hope you can avoid the side effects as they are no fun and get old fast enough. Wow you are going to rack up alot of miles for those weeks, gas prices are jumping too so could and to the side effects of frustration. Hope you aren't to tired to drive back, I did my driving and was around 65 miles round trips and no problems.
Posted 2/1/2013 5:25 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks everyone,

As I already have some urgency issues I suspect they will get worse.

I devised a system to urinate while driving, keeping at least one hand on the wheel, which I used successfully today on my way back. Might help others, so here goes,

Items needed
1. loose fitting sweats with a fly opening, which I currently don't have, so I wore a pair of pajama bottoms that almost look like sweats. No underwear, makes it easier at treatment time anyway. I do bring extra clothing in the car, just in case
2. A hospital urine receptacle, just a plastic bottle with a wide mouth, and an angled neck, which makes it ideal for this purpose.
3. A dark towel(optional)just for privacy, lay it over across your lap.

I managed this easily and with the handle it has, it stands upright by inserting the handle in the center cup holder so the urine jug hangs off from the side of the console.

Had cruise control on, very safe and effective. The day before I turned off at an exit that had signs for gas stations, went over 5 miles before having to turn around, never again for that scenario. One small victory

As for the side effects, how can you tell which drug is having what effect?
Posted 2/1/2013 8:44 PM (GMT 0)
Like 142, I, too, had to find grocery stores with accessible rest rooms along my drive home from my IMRT sessions. I would pee 1) immediately after I got off the table, 2) when I arrived at Whole Foods half way home, 3) after I bought a snack at Whole Foods once more before I left, 4) *optional* when traffic slowed me down I would also stop at Trader Joes.

As for your method for peeing in the car, I discovered a simpler one. It was not long after my surgery and, while I was mostly incontinent standing up I was pretty dry sitting down. I was on a road trip driving to Atlanta. I arrived downtown and was driving around lost somewhere -- at the intersection of Peachtree and Peachtree about a block west of Peachtree -- and I really had to pee. Since I was wearing a pair of Depends pull-up I realized that this only needed to be a problem if I let it. The secret is to leak it out a bit at a time. Those Depends will hold an amazing amount if you give them long enough to soak it up.
Posted 2/2/2013 6:46 PM (GMT 0)
PeterDisAbelard, that Depends story sounds like you might have once been an astronaut. lol
Posted 2/3/2013 12:49 AM (GMT 0)
I have a porta potty in my mini van, sometimes I just can't make it anywhere. Now I've seen guys in texas on the 10 in the middle of no where take a dump, next to their car. But now with urgency issues, I can relate? I like my tinted windows and porta potty, it was cheap.
Posted 2/3/2013 2:03 PM (GMT 0)
Faunt:  I had lymph node radiation at Dattoli's the same time Gregz263 was there, I actually had a great time while in Sarasota.  Obviously you won't be staying there but some of the patients were as knowledgeable about PCa as some Doctors I've been to. 

I actually stopped the carafat after about 3 weeks, everything got better immediately, that one is usually the culprit if you start feeling like sh#*.

Dattoli is as good as it gets in my opinion, when he does ADT he doesn't kid around. 

By the way if you run into Gregz263 in March, he's a great dinner date. lol

Good luck

David

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