11 months since diagnosis

[tom67inMA]

Time for another blog post, with cancer awareness, music videos, running, and general silliness. Credit to j-o-h-n for the Russian music video.

tominmotion.blogspot.com/20...

[Schwah]

Very entertaining!!

[KJMinPhx]

You are an interesting person. I hope you get to stick around for awhile, you have a lot to offer.

[LearnAll]

I enjoy reading your blog. You have this amazing ability to turn adversity into a pleasant journey by your positive attitude. An inspiration for all with mPCa

Hypertension and Hypokalemia (low potassium ) are two common side effects of Zytiga. My hypokalemia became normal by me eating a good chunk of potassium rich veggies and fruits.

For Hypertension , I have to take 5 mg of Amlodipine a day

Ask your doctor what can be done about High B P. ? I wish that you live to full 100 years.

[tom67inMA in reply to LearnAll]

Thanks! Good idea on the potassium rich foods. I'm trying to drink more low sodium V8 juice because they replace the high sodium with high potassium. Keep forgetting to drink it, ugh.

[LearnAll in reply to tom67inMA]

V8 drinks have high sodium so I do not drink them. Zytiga lowered my potassium to 3.2 about 2 months ago. I increased my veggies and fruit intake ( broccoli. cabbage, peaches, bananas, watermelon, dates, tomatoes etc) I was eating these every day, three to four times a day last month.

2 days ago, my lab report showed that my potassium level came up and is 4.3 now. As a bonus for eating these foods, my lipid profile got much better too.

[tom67inMA in reply to LearnAll]

Just to clarify, I said *LOW* sodium V8 juice, which uses potassium salt instead. That's somewhat replacing Gatorade and soda in my diet.

I've tried to make drastic changes in my diet and it didn't work. The bowels weren't ready for it. Gradually changing a few things at a time is working much better for me.

[LearnAll in reply to tom67inMA]

That's fine....drastic changes are difficult You are already on path to good diet.

Just watch potassium level and blood pressure while on Zytiga.

You run a lot and sodium goes out in sweat so you should be fine with some amount of sodium in V8

[westof in reply to LearnAll]

Hmm... An hour after I take Zytiga, I have a banana with prednisone. Potassium levels are as good as they were before dx.

[Lyubov]

Beautifully written & ultimately uplifting account. Consider putting it all together & publishing a book!

[j-o-h-n]

Well Well Well, What's weird is I used to write the way you do. Like fine wine pouring into a glass. However since I'm now on meds I write as if someone shook my beer can just before I opened it. Short and humorous I hope... Keep on running and under your breath keep saying I'll beat those tiny fcuking devils.... You will.

youtube.com/watch?v=i5txwFv...(Not working as expected?)

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Saturday 09/21/2019 8:51 PM DST

[tom67inMA in reply to j-o-h-n]

You're still very funny! I've had some impaired thinking as well, but mine usually shows up in the form of forgetting my keys (I never do that), or going down to the company cafeteria at lunch and then realizing I've been wearing my shirt backwards all morning.

[Gearhead]

So does my Xgeva really come from genetically engineered hamster ovaries?

PS: You write good.

[tom67inMA]

Gearhead , this was supposed to be a reply to you, but I typed it in the wrong place. See my reply to j-o-h-n about impaired thinking

Thanks! My understanding is that Xgeva comes from cultures of genetically modified Chinese hamster ovarian cells, not intact ovaries of intact animals. In a way, I find the reality a little more disturbing than my semi-fictionalized description.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chine...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

[LearnAll]

I learned from you yelling "hamster power...hamster power" . Yesterday, I was running on treadmill mumbling "hamster power..hamster power" ….my wife was amused...when I told her that "hamster power" keeps me going..just like tom...she could not control her laughter..

[tom67inMA in reply to LearnAll]

Laughter is great medicine, happy to have helped!