Nausea and Shortness of breath

[edenii]

I am taking Xtendi (4/day), Lupron, Azor, Vytorin. I have had Brachytherapy at UCLA, Provange, Zytiga. My psa is in a upward path from 0.05 to .9 in about 6 months. I was extremely active prior to diagnosis (tennis 3 times a week, dancing once a week, walking everyday, weights and treadmill everyday. My problem is nausea and shortness of breath which debilitates me and I can't stand it anymore. I feel like tossing all drugs and let nature take its course. Any suggestions as to shortness of breath?

[gusgold]

Drop the Xtandi to 2 caps per day and see what happens

[Tall_Allen]

Someone in my support group is taking Feldenkrais classes. He says he gets less winded during exercise because he is moving more economically.

[wifeofvet]

i know it's easy to attribute everything you're feeling to PCa treatment...but, ya'll are still human beings, aging just like everyone else. nausea and shortness of breath are two symptoms of heart attack or trouble in women...women who have heart attacks much differently than men. considering what PCa drugs do to men, it might not be too surprising to experience the same symptoms that women do. i would have my doc check me out and quickly.

[CalBear74]

edenil,

I don't like these symptoms, speaking as a former medical software manager (triage systems were our specialty). Without reference to drugs, if you were talking on the phone to a triage nurse, you would be sent to the ED to have the possibility of cardiac problems ruled out. You need to talk to your doctor immediately if you haven't done so already. This should be the doc who manages these drugs (urologist? medical oncologist?) and probably see a cardiologist with his guidance.

Please act on this right away. Do not overreact and stop taking any drugs. You might trigger a worse reaction. All of this could be tied to extreme anxiety over a rising PSA.

CalBear74

[vandy69]

Good Sunday Morning edenii,

Do you have any leg/ankle swelling?

During my 6 year battle, I have had blood clots (DVT) 3 times, with the first time also pulmonary emboli (PE). I never had shortness of breath though.

Agree with Calbear, get this checked ASAP. You don't want to live through prostate cancer, but die from a side effect.

Best wishes. Never Give In.

Mark, Atlanta

[gusgold]

shortness of breath and nausea are both known side effects of Xtandi...the only way to know is to lower the dose....a lot of guys have the dose lowered to 3 caps per day...in my case 2 caps per day works just as good as 4 caps based on PSA...ask your Doc

ehealthme.com/ds/xtandi/sho...

[j-o-h-n]

Cardiologist, Cardiologist and Cardiologist. Please keep us up to date.

Good Luck and Good Health.

j-o-h-n Sunday 05/13/2018 1:14 PM EDT

[edenii in reply to j-o-h-n]

I had a complete cardio workup 2 weeks ago and passed with flying colors. I recently started to smoke marijuana and it seems to help more than any anti nausea pills!

[YouGottaBeKiddingMe]

They are taking my prostate out on the 29th. Gleason 8/10, ect ect, aggressive "oh joy".

I've had the nausea and shortness of breath for a while now, and I'm not taking any cancer meds yet. I don't know if it's heart, cancer, or the fact that I've gotten lazy (fatigue). We live 1/8 mile off the road, and I'm out of breath when I walk to the mail box and back. Not totally, but not happy about it either.

You might consider asking your doc for these guys for the nausea. I don't know if my nausea is due to the cancer, I've had it a couple of years. They thought it was slow digestion, then they said, "cyclic vomiting syndrome", and now "figure the odds, cancer". Should have known.

I have stomach and sleep problems, along with restless legs at night. I have Odansetron for nausea, Ropinirole for restless legs (it actually works, it's a Parkinson med, but if you only take a mg or two, you're good to go on the restless leg front, thank goodness for this med), and Seroquel for sleep. Sometimes lyrica, but it's pretty expensive. It does work for restless legs and sleep, there's no doubt about that. Lyrica is great, just expensive. About $10 per pill x2 per day for sleep. It's a luxury.

I also take Promethazine for nausea, but that takes and hour to kick in, where the Odansetron is sublingual and dissolves pretty quick and works pretty quick.

My trick, is to get ahead of the nausea. I can't stress this enough. The minute you feel something, start fighting. If I let it go too far, it doesn't matter what I do, I'm going to be praying at the porcelain alter. If I can catch it early, I can beat it.

This is going to sound weird, but sometimes I feel so gross, and "can't puke". I end up sticking my finger down my throat, and making myself gag. Somehow, some way it tricks my body into thinking I did get sick and the nausea will subside. I'm not telling anyone to do this, but when you deal with nausea at a high level, EVERY FREAKIN DAY, you try everything under the sun. I also drink a lot of ginger ale.

Let there be no mistake, it's a cat and mouse game with the nausea and it's pretty horrible. I feel for you man. Hope you find some relief. Hope my past battle and experiences help.

[YouGottaBeKiddingMe in reply to YouGottaBeKiddingMe]

Agh, case in point. Today/this time it came on so quickly, I took the Odansetron and Promethazine, but there was no catching it early. You know, you do go through a why me period, but at this point, I'm just pissed off...lol. So sick of feeling like @#$%...

[frankgeorge]

I was told my PSA was elevated slightly about three years ago and I was very sexually active. I was told I had three choices. Leave it alone for 6 months and do nothing to see how it behaved, or, have the Brachytherapy one time and that would eliminate the possibility of cancer or, three, have daily radiation for, I think he said 6 weeks with no promises. As I had always done in the past, I asked the doc what he would do if he faced the same problem. He told me, Brachytherapy. For the very last time in my life I did what the doc suggested. Immediately after the procedure I lost the ability to achieve an erection. I cannot even get excited. To use my friend's terminology who has the same problem. "I have a piece of meat hanging between my legs whose only purpose now is to PEE and can only do THAT with my morning pill !

My advice with the Brachytherapy is to let it wait 6 months. and in the mean time ENJOYthe sex !

[RonPavluvcik]

I experienced severe shortness of breath after starting chemo....first with TAXOTERE chemo, which didn't work after 3 infusions/drips, and then with JEVTANA chemo....it got so bad I checked into a hospital and they discovered I had PNEUMONIA.....so then hospitalized for 4 days, and home now still getting more antibiotics.....shill have lingering shortness of breath....get checked for PNEUMONIA......Ron in Connecticut

[bjorner3 in reply to RonPavluvcik]

Great tip! Thanks. That hadn't been suggested to me by oncologist or other Drs. I have experienced extreme shortness of breathe with any type of exertion even simply talking. So far leading suggestions or theories are chemo induced lung injury induced by gemcitobine , obstructive sleep apnea though I am not a snorer pulmonary hypertension or cardiac problems.

[Ella_St]

Well, I am might completely wrong but according to what is regularly happens to my Dad - and in few cases in the last halv year they thought he had problems with his heart (they made all sort of tests, but everything is fine) can even bad blood, i.e. low hemoglobin causes shortness of breath, tiredness etc. His Hg (hemoglobin) was in all these cases lower than 75. Then he usually gets a blood transfusion and it helps. He is taking Zytiga from November last year (and when it first happened they were sure that Zytiga caused it. I guess my answer doesn't help you and I hope you (and your doctor) will figure out why is that happening to you but anyway - it might help to someone else (because all doctors were more than 4 times sure that he had a heart attack). Wish you all the best!