Thankful

After the turkey and pumpkin pie are now leftovers, I am taking this moment to feel thankful that I have my husband beside me. I battle with trying to live in the moment and enjoying each day instead of letting the worry and fear of what lies ahead steal the good days. My husband's PSA is starting to rise on Xandti and Luron shots abeit slowly,(doubling time 5 months) now is 14. The doctor says the next treatment will be Xofigo since all his Mets are in bone. Praying for strength for all of us affected by this disease.

[Tub111]

I too agree with you being thankful for every day my husband is by my side. I pray that it will be many more years for all of us and try as you to not think of the future. It’s not easy and knowing many others are feeling the same does bring some relief. Wishing you strength through your next journey.

Sheri (wife,caregiver, cheerleader)

[Caring7]

Me again. I hope your husband has had (or considered) Taxotere chemo. This is now standard of care for advanced metastatic PCa. Let me know if you want more info on that -- or maybe you've already been down that road.

NOTE -- In less than the first 2 years, my husband wen through Lupron (still on that) with Casodex, Xgeva (still on), then Provenge (Immunotherapy - which you might also consider as it cannot be given if cancer progresses to organs, which isn't that common but happens), then Xofigo, then went castration resistant, finally -- had a great run (nearly 2 years) on Xtandi. Then switched to abiraterone/Zytiga. NOTE -- your doctor might say that the chances of Zytiga working are really low. Our expert guy said less than 15% -- but guess what, it's worked now for almost a year! So it's worth a try.

The overall point I'm making is that we ran through a lot of treatments (nearly all of them) in the first two years, but then it turned around (thankful for expensive drugs and good insurance).

If you have not consulted with a research specialist at a cancer center, you really should consider it. This doesn't replace your regular MOnc, but supplements it. The prostate specialist knows everything about PCa because that's all he/she deals with. If you post your area, people will make suggestions nearby (which may not be so near -- we live in Hawai`i so "near" is San Francisco!) But it is worth every trip (plus we add in baseball or football and visits to friends.

Take care,

Brenda

[Hidden in reply to Caring7]

Hi Caring. Early in my husband's treatment he tried Taxotere. After the first one he couldn't eat for 9 days so he couldn't continue. When I feel so angry that there is no cure for this monster, I try to remember that we have more treatments available now than ten years ago. Just yesterday on the news I saw the FDA approved a new cancer drug for cancers with a certain Gene mutation. I tell Mitch to not give up beating this thing!