Day 4,255 – Green Light for SRT – Dan's Journey through Prostate Cancer

I’m good to go to start my salvage radiation therapy on Thursday. Yippee. <sarcasm font>

You may recall in my last monthly update, I commented that I was having a dull ache in my testicles and groin. I really wanted to ensure that something weird wasn’t going on. Unfortunately, I experienced my first bit of a run-around with the VA Medical Center. After nearly a month of back-and-forth with the office and schedulers, I was able to see the urologist this afternoon.

In a nutshell, she did a physical exam and determined that there was no hernia. I can proceed with SRT Thursday.

I’ve continued my bladder-filing experiment through the weekend with mixed results. Again, I’m scheduled for zapping at 9:45 a.m. and I’m trying to be able to hold my bladder to at least 10:15 a.m.

Saturday, I had a complete fail—I couldn’t hold anything past 9:30 a.m., 15 minutes before my scheduled start time. Not good. Hopefully, I get this sorted out and what’s in my bladder will be sufficient for the zapping.

Date	Start Drinking	Stop Drinking	Urgency at 9:45 a.m. (1-10)	Need to Empty Bladder	Volume (1-10)
30 June	8:45	9:15	5	10:45	5
1 July	8:35	9:10	7	10:15	7
2 July	8:30	9:05	8	*9:30*	6
3 July	8:45	9:15	4	10:10	7
4 July	8:40	9:15	4	10:25	5
5 July	8:30	9:15	4	10:40	5

Regarding Eligard / hormone therapy side effects, I’m not complaining. Fatigue remains the prevalent side effect. Luckily, no hot flashes yet and, surprisingly, I can still achieve an erection and orgasm to about the same level as before the Eligard. (A bit more effort is required.)

I’m not sure how much I’ll write about the actual SRT once it gets started. I’ll probably stick to the noteworthy items along the way. Let’s hope it does the trick with minimal damage along the way.

Be well!

8 thoughts on “Day 4,255 – Green Light for SRT”

Sounds like your coming along pretty well. My biggest problem with holding the water was after awhile the bowel wanted to chime in and once I got to the center and just had to go so they forgave me and waited another 10-15 min. for me to refill my bladder again. Sometimes keeping everything in line is difficult. I was on Lupron for 6mo. and was hit with a lot more SE than the Eligard seems to be effecting you so you might continue to do well. I purposely did not engage in any sex during the EBRT I had just so everything was completely “intact”. Keep us updated as it is very interesting to hear how you are doing compared to my journey.
Charles

LikeLike

5 July 2022 at 19:01 Reply

Dan

Thanks for sharing your experience, Charles. I’ll keep your points in mind as I go through this.

LikeLike

6 July 2022 at 09:34 Reply

Hi Dan, Good Luck with the SRT – is that the highly targeted Stereotactical Radiation rather than the “carpet bombing” wide angle approach?

LikeLike

5 July 2022 at 19:11 Reply

Dan

Hi Peter. SRT is my acronym for salvage radiation therapy more broadly. We’re actually doing Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) which is focusing strictly on the prostate bed.

LikeLike

6 July 2022 at 09:32 Reply
1. Peter Skinner
  
  Thanks for that explanation Dan, you are some weeks ahead of me, as my second injection (of 6) of Firmagon occurs on 15 July and tne radiation therapy commences first week of September and goes 5 days per week for 7 weeks. Good luck, I’ll keep watching for your updates, Peter.
  
  LikeLike
  
  6 July 2022 at 12:19