I'm back in the hospital for the second time with Cellultius in my leg.
Have anyone had this as a side effect of prostate cancer?
Cellultius: I'm back in the hospital... - Advanced Prostate...
Cellultius
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Cellultius is seen in men with prostate cancer. Most commonly seen in men over 60 years. Cellultius is an infection under the skin and needs to be treated with antibiotics.
Joel
I don't know Cellutius but Cellulitus is a chronic condition which is often associated with bacterial infections resulting from a broken bone or surgery with effects in the underlying layers of the skin. The condition being chronic has lifelong recurrent infections treated with one or two IV hefty antibiotic treatments. The older blunderbuss approach to lymph gland removal in the pelvic area if broad enough resulted in lymphodema - a very serious leg side effect equivalent to the swollen arm many women suffered from after undergoing a mastectomy. Thankfully modern surgery, particularly robotic surgery, has fewer sufferers from lymphodema after surgery.
I have Cellulitus after a broken ankle and you just need to get the IV antibiotic at the first sign of swelling. Incidentally, I have had a radical prostatectomy followed by radiation of the bed of the Prostate after surgery and requested adjuvant and neoadjuvent hormone treatment associated with the radiation treatment. I was told 'No, this is done if the radiation fails' but I convinced the Radio oncologist to agree and his subsequent investigations led to this being the 'best practice' treatment nowadays. My Gleason was 3 + 4 - 7 and my PSA continued to rise leading to intermittent Lucrin - ghastly side effects for me. Have just had the latest PET scan ... Gallium 68 PSMA which highlights lymph indicators down to almost 1 mm ... The Choline PET scan which was the forerunner was less effective and was only used for about 6 months. Have some lymph spots up near the kidneys but NO metastaces thankfully.
***** Watch the Advanced Treatment of Prostate Cancer on video by A/Professor Henry Woo on You Tube ... Excellent and up to date and quotes small but good study by Prof Emmett of St Vincent's hospital Sydney. P Woo now at University of Sydney (?) and the talk given at the Seventh Day Adventist hospital support group - Hornsby ... Sydney.
I cannot recommend this video highly enough because it explains what's involved very clearly, simply and completely besides Professor Woo answers all questions of the group good naturedly and well.
Cheers, Aussiedad 75
p.s. Professor Woo has a second (earlier) video on the Choline PET scan but the Gallium 68 is the better more up to date one.
The comment by JoelT I have reread and it is not correct. There is no condition called Cellutius and the comment that it is commonly seen in men with prostate cancer is incorrect by itself ... As I wrote previously it is caused by bacterial infection under the skin often subsequent to skin injury from surgery, accident, broken bones involving skin etc. As for writing that Cellulitis is most commonly seen in men over 60, this is an unsupported statement. I have mentored PhD level in a BioMedical university faculty and received high level education in a very wide range of pharmaceuticals and base my comments on actual knowledge.
Would all contributors please refrain from generalised statements which do not have a sound basis in fact. Misinformation is most unhelpful to participants in these forums as well as possibly causing undue, unnecessary worry.
Cheers
in reply to Aussiedad
huh? I have no idea what your trying to say.
I had robotic prostatectomy in 2014 and radiation in 2015, followed by lower abdomen/groin lymphedema, followed by cellulitis in one leg from scratching a wart. Antibiotics took care of the cellulitis, I had the wart removed, and I haven't gotten cellulitis again.
I had a serious break of an ankle in 2008 and have had three episodes of Cellulitis since then ... the episodes recurred during periods when I was very unwell which depressed my immune system.
Incidentally, my last episode of Cellulitis was initially treated with antibiotic capsules instead of IV ... I commented that treatment with antibiotic capsules would not work (I have a very comprehensive knowledge of current antibiotics) and the treating doctor agreed but said that she had to prescribe the capsules because of a cost cutting policy of the hospital which is a major regional hospital in NSW Australia. What a disaster ...
Within 3 days I was back at the hospital and prescribed 8-10 days of IV injections ... 2 days later I had to see an endocrinologist, a tropical diseases doctor and be placed on a very heavy duty antibiotic.
My calf was massively swollen - 145 cms in diameter - and I had two venous ultrasounds which are a very specialised procedure ... $1,000 a time for a full leg scan. So much for cost cutting.
I will conclude with a further bizarre twist which shows the shambolic state of health care in a major area of the State of NSW. I received a call from my GP's receptionist at the ne of the first week of treatment for the Cellulitis that I needed to have a brain scan! I went and had the scan which I subsequently learnt was supposedly to check for a brain tumour!!! There was no brain tumour. The scan appears to have resulted from a hospital employee - the hospital complaints person who also acts patient support person!
The next morning I could not walk on the leg with Cellulitis because of the pain and the leg was 152cms in diameter. I waited until 5 pm that evening and went to the hospital to have the size of the swollen leg recorded. A long wait led to eventually being seen by a junior male emergency room nurse who told me I would have to strip and put on a surgical gown. He then suggested I had had a major infarct (heart attack). With my knowledge of heart conditions and medications besides being acutely aware of my own heart performance and condition I knew that this wasn't the case but went along with it hoping that the nurse would learn something from the process. I was passed on to a specialist nurse for ECG and blood test ... I had NOT had an infarct.
I will write a novel about my hospital experiences unless I decide to take the Medical Director to court .... But let me entertain you with the epilogue to 'having my swollen leg size recorded'.
I happened to say to the young nurse, who suspected that I had had an infarct, that I have an embargo on access to my file - only my GP and the doctors treating me are to have access to my file. He told me 'No problem, I would never repeat patient tn formation'. He then asked if I knew nurse named David - same name as himself - who had the same surname as me. He knew a nurse who worked in the ED of the hospital. I told him that the ED nurse was in fact my son!
The MO was telling me that I could go when this young nurse came in, interrupted, and told me his full name because he had phoned my son!!!
I asked if my son was at work and he said no, he was at home. I asked a nurse if I could dres and leave and was told to stay in bed for a while. The penny dropped when a security guard appeared and I realised that I was to be seen by a psychiatric registrar!!!
It seems that the nurse and my son must have decided that I had had a psychotic episode (I had spoken of the PhD student I was mentoring). My son in fact was hundreds of miles away at a music festival with his footy mates (this now being midnight) and they would not have been drinking lemonade!
The Asian Australian psychiatric registrar when she arrived told me she hadn't been to bed for twenty three and a half hours! I suggested she go home to bed and she said she couldn't because she had a patient in another hospital to see.
To cut the story short - she had to ring the on call psychiatrist who would have told her to wake up to herself but then spent an hour speaking to an intern before coming and apologising to me.
I couldn't get a copy of my release paper for a week but then found that she covered herself by noting I was of no risk to myself but I should be followed up in the community!
I walked out of the hospital at 5am!!!
Be warned - keep your wits about you in dealing with hospital personnel.
Not to worry ... With Cellulitis just get IV antibiotic with each attack which is dictated by swelling and keep your leg elevated until the swelling subsides.
Cheers
