I went in for the injection on Saturday, March 30. What was this one for? Ever since the cancer had spread to my spine and hips (among other places) I have been experiencing both weakness and soreness in those areas. It has prevented me from any reasonable level of comfort in the daytime and has absolutely kept me awake at night. It's called Prolia (Denosumab) and it's the kind of thing they give to patients with osteoporosis to help strengthen bones.
It wasn't fast acting, that's for sure. I felt no better that entire weekend. At that point, I'm alternating ibuprofen and acetaminophen throughout the day and the prescribed hydrocodone at night just to be somewhat (give that word a wide birth) comfortable. We all know that taking too much ibuprofen and/or acetaminophen can cause other problems, so I did my best to alternate between the two. However, it was already clear to me by this time that the ibuprofen was working much better than the acetaminophen, so my alternating leaned in favor of ibuprofen.
We had an appointment to see my doctor again on Tuesday, April 2. This was really a pre-op appointment for a procedure that we have scheduled for April 10. Our first topic of conversation was how uncomfortable I still was -- it almost felt worse on Monday and Tuesday! He informed us that, once that injection finally kicks in, some patients "feel like crap" for 24-48 hours. Lucky me, I was apparently once of these patients.
He gave us some advice to help combat the negative effects of the injection (which I will need to get every four weeks): Vitamin D, a calcium supplement and, of all things, pomegranate juice concentrate. My wife ordered that right away and it all arrived this afternoon. Thursday, April 4.
My symptoms have changed today, too. I was not as achy when I first got up. Doing my regular bathroom routine (not including a shower... I'm doing that every other day at this point) did not completely wear me out. That's not to say it didn't make me tired, just not the feel of a major workout like it had for the past week or so. On the down side, I had a strange tingling in my lips(!) and both hands, and I felt somewhat nauseous. When I finally came downstairs to get some water and a bite to eat, I was overwhelmed with a sudden feeling of nausea that had me scrambling to find a bucket. It subsided, and I toasted myself an English muffin. One bite into that muffin while on the couch, though, and the nausea came rushing back. I never did throw up, though, thankfully, and I was able to eat the muffin.
After all that, I spent most of the rest of the afternoon in a bit of a brain fog. Seriously, I felt brain dead. We looked up some side effects of chemical treatments (particularly the injection to lower my testosterone) and it seemed like these were somewhat common side effects. Also, to my amazement, I didn't need any ibuprofen or acetaminophen all afternoon long. Clearly, something has changed. It's such a shame that every step in the right direction is accompanied by its own negative side effects, but I guess that's just where we are with medicine right now.
Our next "big" step is a cryotherapy procedure on April 10. The idea here is that freezing cracks the cell walls of the cancer, so the procedure involves a freeze/thaw/repeat of my prostate. As uncomfortable as it sounds (and I'll be sedated during the procedure) it appears to be a newer, more effective, and less risky method than surgically removing my prostate. My doctor has seen a lot of success with this method, so we are hopeful.
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