6 Months Post Chemo - My treatment Sit Rep, 😎 DD

[Doseydoe]

It's been about six months since my last Chemo shot - 9 x Docetaxcel infusions. I'm feeling pretty good.

My hair has grown back and I'm confident the chemo did its job, that is, killed the microscopic PCa cells that had escaped my prostate and were floating around in my system. Being stage IV, surgery was ruled out, so it was ADT (casodex and eligard), Chemo (docetaxcel) which got about 40% of the cancer and Radio (VMAT, 60GYs) which killed the remaining PCa cells.

So, six months after chemo, the nails on my hands have almost recovered. I used ice packs on my fingers but decided it was all a bit complicated to ice my toes as well, so I let them be and leave them to their chemo fate........ I have discovered that you can see the chemo shots on your nails like the rings on a growing tree. I googled it once and there is a name for it.

So, six months out I have one full wave left that I can see on the top of my nails, which I deduce is how long before the chemo is fully out of my system. My toes however, while doing OK, are being a bit slower to recover. They are a bit brown and flaky and the king toes have large ripples that extend half way. Maybe it's because I did not ice them, but I suspect they are just less exposed to sunlight and generally have a harder life. I used a nail brush on both my hand and tootsies and also applied moisturiser as part of my daily routine. Oh, I found that putting moisturer on my scalp was soothing and maybe helped in the hair growth as well, can't hurt I figured.

My bloods took a caning and I had to have a short 6 week break between the 6 and 7 chemo infusions. I had to have daily self administered shots of the drug, filigrastam for 5 days, which increase my body's ability to produce more white blood cells. This caused pressure in my bones which resulted in bone pain which required panadine forte to suppress the agony.

Six months on, all the pain and suffering is a memory and I feel really good. My scans are clear and my last four PSA results were: 0.03, 0.02, 0.01 and 0.02 - so that's fantastic!!

From what I've learnt, ADT starves the PCa cells of their nutrition. So start ADT early while you get over the initial shock and fear, this gives you a breathing space to get your head around it all while you decide what to do.

Chemo is a posion that is put into your blood to kill the fast growing cancer cells, which unfortunately kills your hair cells but also kills acne, so a small benefit 👏👏.

From my understanding, the chemo circulates around your body and hopefully kills any PCa cells floating around in your blood before they come to rest somewhere in a critical organs and causes more damage. Do chemo early is my advice.

I learnt that chemo won't kill all your cancer cells. Everyone is different and for me, chemo only killed about 40% of my cancers - than being in my Protate, Bladder and Pelvis. So I had 20 x Vmat sessions. This in conjunction with the ADT and Docetaxcel worked for me.

From my experience, the combination of ADT, Chemo and Radiation as a standard treatment of care has proven to be effective.

From my experience, the after effects of Docetaxcel were like having a combination of a hangover whilst having the flu but only it lasted for 3 days. So I recommend to get off your ass and to walk for at least 30 mins every day. Drink more than normal (an extra 1L) and to sleep during the day, you're sick remember!

This post has gone on longer that I intended, but thanks for hanging in.

In summary, it's been 6 months since my last chemo shot and I am lucky that I have responded well to the treatment. Please don't fear chemo, it has its place in the scheme of things. I hope you respond well to what ever treatments you have available, cheers 😎 DD

PS, has anyone heard from the Wimpster as he seems to have dropped off line.

[tom67inMA]

Sounds like a great response to treatment all around and I hope you have a long remission (I use the dictionary definition of remission which is "a lessening of disease", others here have more stringent definitions).

I've been researching some of the genetic anomolies in my cancer, and it turns out chemo can be much harder on cancer cells than healthy cells. For example, my cancer lacks both copies of the TP53 gene. In my healthy cells, this gene stops cell division until any DNA damage from chemo has been fixed, alowing the cell to maintain normal function. My cancer, on the other hand, for lack of TP53 will proceed with division even if the DNA is gibberish and that is likely to result in cell death. My cancer was also stupid enough to LOSE a copy of a gene that's associated with resistance to chemo.

I also had the docetaxel growth rings in my nails, but not with any other chemo since. I'm beginning to believe extra chemo cycles may be a very good thing if it's working and your body can tolerate them. Get the most out of any treatment that reduces your tumor burden!

[Mascouche in reply to tom67inMA]

People who undergo chemo can produce a similar effect to what you are describing by fasting 3 days before the chemo and fasting for another 24 hour after the chemo. Based on studies by Valter Longo and others, fasting puts the healthy cells in protection mode where they stop dividing while cancer cells continue to divide. So this not only protects the healthy cells from most side-effects of the chemo, it also makes the chemo itself more efficient. There is more and more literature on that topic.

[Mascouche in reply to Mascouche]

I believe that Thomas Seyfried said that a similar protection could be achieved by fasting when doing radiation but it is much harder to achieve since radiation is performed for about 45 days in a row unlike chemo where you get a break of several days between sessions.

[tom67inMA in reply to Mascouche]

I've heard this and tried a half hearted fast. I can't do 3 days before until 24 hours after because my chemo involves a take home pump that runs for 46 hours and the cycle is every two weeks. That works out to 6 days without food out of 14, and I'm having enough trouble maintaining weight as it is. I do try not to stuff myself needlessly (especially with protein) around infusion time and hope my lighter weight cuts down on growth signals to the healthy cells. It seems to be working, digestive side effects aren't as bad as they were in the first cycle.

[Mascouche in reply to tom67inMA]

Fasting is definitely not something to do for anyone who is underweight. Maybe eating less as you mention can help some but to stop the growth signals it does require not eating at all for extended period because as I understand it you have to shut down the digestion and the production of insulin and even light eating is likely to trigger the production of insulin. I've fasted many times but I never did take chemo so far as my doctor refuses to include chemo in my treatment as long as I do not become castration resistant and of course becoming castration resistant is not something to wish for.

[Tall_Allen]

Thanks for the really useful journal of your experience. I hope others will take your advice to use it early.