Radium calm radio3/6/2023 I'm pretty confident now that my bone pain is reducing. I am equating this with the neutropenic period one has each cycle when on chemo. I will quiz my radium doc on typically when in the 28 days radium cycle that the platelets are low. She believes the oral blood will correct itself once the platelets rise again. She advises that I am very cautious during periods when my platelets are low. She believes the combination of the PCa, the pneumonia I had this summer, the chemo and the RT has damaged the lungs. Doc comes back at 6.30pm and says "good news, no blood clot". She also fears a blood clot and sends me for an CT scan with contrast. The low platelets explain the extreme bruising. See doc after a couple of hours, lots of questions, she says the bloods are OK apart from the platelets which are down to 95. Do so, lots of questions, more bloods taken and referred on to the Ambulatory Medical Unit. Got up Saturday morning, off to wash, coughed, spat into basin, foook foook foook, that's more blood than yesterday! Rang 111, they put me onto Devon Doctors (the out of hours GP service), the doc asks lots of questions and says she is concerned it could be a blood clot(s) in the lungs, get your sorry arse down to us at the RD&E. We will contact you if anything is wrong. See GP (not my usual one) she listens to my chest and is reasonably happy but says we're taking bloods. Get on phone to radium doc, explain what's happened, he thinks this isn't caused by the radium but says go see your GP. Got up Friday morning, off to wash, coughed, spat into basin, foook me that's blood! Also found that after a couple of very minor collisions where items of furniture had leapt out and tried to assault me, that I'd developed severe bruising of a colour that any Roman Emperor would be proud of (dramatic looking but not painful). Thanks to you all again for all the support and encouragement you have given me. This will probably be my last post on this thread. But I plan to organise a get together for friends and family towards the end of January to celebrate David's life, not mourn his death. The funeral/cremation is arranged for the week after next - that will be small and private. I think he might have blushed a bit! But they are all true. The same words about David have cropped up time and again - kind, generous, encouraging, welcoming, helpful, lovely man, patient, enthusiastic. Many lovely words of sympathy and support. I have received loads and loads of cards and letters from neighbours and friends, especially from the croquet club and, of course all your lovely posts on the forum. I didn't have to call to get an appointment, the Registrar called me to arrange it for next Monday. The Coroner's Office not only agreed without delay (so I now have the Certificate) they called me to let me know and also must have notified the Registrar. As no doctor in our practice had seen David in the period before his death, our GP had to get agreement from the Coroner's Office before he could issue the Certificate of Cause of Death. The various authorities are being very helpful. Everyday things such as cooking for one rather than two take some getting used to. As you say Julie - normal changes from day to day. The emotional roller coaster goes on - sometimes fairly upbeat, often anxious, jittery and tearful, but I'll get there. So this is the baseline I start from and against which I will judge the success or otherwise of Radium 223 treatment. The pain in the left shoulder has been partially relieved by a recent session of RT. I am keeping reasonable control of this pain through the use of Paracetamol, Ibuprofen and Naproxen plus a placebo known as Real Beer. This is related to the bone mets I have in these areas. I have constant bone pain in my right hip, lower back, middle back and left shoulder. The major reason for this degredation in quality of life has been the development of bone pain in my back over the last month or so. I was playing croquet and was able to play for many hours per day again that is no more. Then I was going to the gym 3 times a week now that is no more. I start Radium 223 in poorer physical condition than was the case just 6 months ago. Whilst I'm not yet quite supping at the Last Chance saloon, Radium 223 is the last of the major conventional treatments available for my advanced prostate cancer. On 10/10/17 I will be starting up to 6 x 28 day cycles of Radium 223. I am going to keep a log of my experiences. For brief details of the treatments I've had to date, click on my name. This thread follows on from my previous threads:
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