Twelve weeks on - a lot of sleep and inconvenient preoccupations

After my first dose of radioactive therapy, I thought I was fine. Ha ha. Tiredness hit me a week afterwards and I have spent a lot more time in bed than usual ever since. On occasion up to 18 hours, rousing for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Don't fight it. Sleep helps the medicine do its job, my reward is that after just two doses, the doctors tell me that all the new cancer cells have been killed off. How do they know. Well, it is thanks to the post dose pix they take 24-hours after administering a dose of Lu-177. My pix session yesterday was cut short - there were two scanning sessions booked in a Gamma Ray camera. First, a 25-minute all body scan after which the Nuclear Medicine Doctor decided I did not need to undergo the second session - there was nothing to photograph in greater detail. Remember this trial treatment is a combination of radioactive isotopes that guide the medicine directly to the prostate cancer cells. That work will go on until the end of six six-weekly-cycles. During that time, I expect to continue to have long spells in bed. But life is not all sleep and eat. After the first week of radioactive treatment purdah - no sleeping with another person for a week - increased from three days after a rethink by the Nuclear Medicine Physicists. Keeping two metres away from everyone else is also required. Daily clothing changes and hot washes recommended. I still try to get out, hot chocolates in the local park, keeping up me steps. But the weekly Gentle Gym Session which I restarted three weeks ago was a no no this week. But getting back to organised exercise after dropping out for a couple of months was a big plus. Part of my response to the first dose in early September was a sense of loss of core strength. I did not feel able to either exercise or practice my double bass. My heart function has changed. I have been wearing an I-watch ever since catching Covid in December 2020 and being hospitalised. I was lucky - discharged within four days. But my elder son bought me the I-watch and monitors me by mutual consent. Over the past 12-weeks my walking heart rate has been trending significantly higher than previously. I must be careful being too active after a meal - I risk a loss of blood pressure and fainting or walking and feeling breathless. It doesn't last for long, the doctors are not concerned, I just have to manage another 'inconvenience. In between times, I have managed football matches, art galleries, classical music concerts, church services, cheering on my rugby-playing grandson. Have all my prostate cancer cells been killed off for go, well no, I am hoping to be able to report more about the whys and wherefores in another post after the latest images have been fully analysed. The other good news is my PSA level has dropped from over 12 at the start of the trial in early September to 1.06 this week - another sign that the targeted molecular radioactive therapy is working for me.

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[Giampi]

Keep strong Peter