Coping with Chemo

[Elderflower46]

My husband is 75 and was diagnosed with advanced prostrate cancer in September. He started on hormone tablets and has had a couple of hormone injections followed by three cycles of chemo out of six. He had his third on Thursday and by Saturday night he was really struggling with painful muscles and joints which hasn’t improved much up to today after lots of co-codamol. He was the same after his second cycle too. Any advice would be welcome.

[Hidden]

I do not (yet) have personal experience with this, but his symptoms are certainly typical of what men in my support group report. The two weeks after the Lupron injection seem to be the worst times. They are helped by taking walks 30 minutes a day and acetominophen or non-steroidal antiinflammatories like Advil or Aleve. Hope that helps. It will lessen over time.

[Elderflower46 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you for that. I’ll try and encourage him to do more exercise, I don’t think he feels up to it with being fatigued but hopefully will feel better as the treatment goes on.

[Hidden]

He is right. He is fatigued. That magic is that starting exercise reverses that. Most of us have a 5-week training period when our body reacts negatively to new exercise. That goes away. There is lots of medical evidence of the benefits of exercise for health. Both the Arnot and the Scholz books have chapters about this. [pcaw.org/books/health-prost...; kirkusreviews.com/book-revi...]

[Hidden]

start easy, first week 15 minute walk each day, second week, 20, third week, 25; fourth week 30 minute walk.