ADT and SRT Journey Part 6

Rich like I told Ken won't be long and you will be swinging thru the vines chasing Jane! 😜😜😜

Larry

Thanks for the encouragement, Rob/Larry/Ken. I'm okay with the waiting game. Time flies anyhow.

It strikes me, though, that instead of concerning ourselves with how long we're on ADH, we should focus on how long T is actually suppressed, seeing as how for must of us T seems to remain exceedingly low for months after the juice is out of our systems.

My understanding is that once the depot gel is fully dissolved (3 or 6 months) that the actual serum Lupron has a six month half life. So using my case for simplicity...

* Jan 2018 final 6/mo shot

* July 2018, dissolved and begin to wear off

• Jan 2019 - 50% remains

• July 2019 - 25% remains

• Jan 2020 - 12.5% remains

You'd think it would be gone by then!

Glad to see all these posts from those of you who preceded me and were so helpful through ADT/SRT. If there’s no test that will detect PC because there’s too little testosterone to feed it, then as far as we know we’re free of growing cancer. Enjoy the moment.
RobLee, by your math 50% of the Lupron will be around for my next psa in July — is there a way to plot the recovery of testosterone — percentage of recovery, say — as the Lupron wears off?

Last 3 month shot November 2018.
Still getting hot flashes, still can’t Lose weight/belly fat no matter how hard I try. Still trying though.

I have noticed lots of you guys have gotten a testosterone test same time as psa I asked for one this last time but was told by my RO team that with my psa undetectable and with me heading toward 2 yrs on Lupron there was no need to take it cause it would still be down in the dumps last test was around 6 or 7 and that the insurance would not pay for it? I guess at this point doesn't really matter till the lupron gets out of my system hopefully anyway! 😃 Larry

Larry, it may be because you were on ADT longer term. Still, if you want it done for your own interest just to know if there is any sign of it beginning to rise, and your willing to pay for it, then just tell the Dr. that, no harm in getting the test done.
Also I don’t see why insurance wouldn’t pay for it, if you’re coming off of ADT

Pratoman said...
Crazykick, thanks for sharing. And congrats.
Am I correct in reading your numbers that your baseline T before Lupron was 352 and it’s now up to higher than baseline, at 448? I’ve never seen that before.

Prato, you read that correctly, baseline of 342 prior to start of ADT and now steady climb up to 448. Believe me when I say that my eyes popped out of my head when my T results were posted on the stony brook patient portal. I’m at a loss as to why they would be that much higher then my baseline after all that was done to me last year.

Mike

Greetings,

One thing that has been "bothering me" before and since starting ADT is the implied delay in time expended to figure out if the radiation did its job. I then wonder how much of the benefit being attributed to the ADT in the literature is related to the delay of eventual PSA rises as opposed to a net positive effect on actual survival outcomes. Also it looks to me like much of the data supporting the benefit of ADT in an SRT setting was developed over times when radiation doses were less than what is standard today. My current regimen is ADT for a couple months and then radiation (coincident with ADT) for 40 sessions. Total ADT 6 months. If I had decided to forgo the ADT I would be finished with the radiation before I am even scheduled to start under my current plan. If PSA rose during the radiation period we would be pretty clear that it wasn't where they zapped and be taking definitive next steps (e.g. scans, ADT etc.) accordingly. If it declined then we would just hope it stays that way and monitor. Anyway, I already joined the ADT party so that is that.

Also, in view of recent posts by Prato and others on the question of the timing of T recovery I have pasted an interesting article with some data focused on the topic of factors influencing T recovery after ADT.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5754577/

Retrospective study linking ADT to Rheumatoid Arthritis.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29267861

Yep, it is happening to me after two years ADT I am having issues in my fingers, including trigger finger!
My last 3 month Lupron injection was April 2018

Anyone else?

Pratoman said...
I have developed trigger finger over the last year, then it got better on its own. ...
Whether the trigger finger has to do with Lupron or not, there is no doubt as I’ve said in a previous thread that it’s a sinister drug on many levels

Within the past month, I've developed trigger finger (first time) in my right pinkie. Not painful, but annoying. Could be a belated gift of the Eligard. OR the Losartan for HBP. OR the Mirtazepine for insomnia. OR the atorvastatin (Lipitor) I started 5 weeks ago. But most likely just aging, I think.

BTW, in 5 weeks the statin dropped my total cholesterol from 252 to 158, LDL from 175 to 91. Wow.

Grateful to all of you who helped me so much through the journey of prostatectomy, persistent psa, ADT, and SRT and also to the doctors and techs at MSKCC.
Like crazyick, my testosterone is higher than it was just before my first Lupron shot. It averaged 460 before, and yesterday it registered 682, almost 50% higher. Psa is undetectable. That’s eleven months after finishing radiation and one year from the second 3-month Lupron depot (total 6 months). No lingering SEs, and even the ED is improving.
However, my wife had a stroke a month ago. Kept her speech, wits, reasoning but lost her balance and bilateral coordination. Fortunately, she is regaining what she lost at an excellent intensive rehab hospital (Sunnyview in Schenectady) and will be home in two weeks. Given my test results I should be around long enough to get her all the way back, always mindful that the beast can return.

I chose my username ironically because the cancer was progressing; now she and I can progress.