It was brought home to me when the scan, the CT scan, showed up some spots on my ribs which the consultant said he was unsure about. He didn't know whether that was a secondary infection or whether it was a previous injury. And as a result of that he prescribed that I should have radiation treatment and that he would also at the same time give me the hormone injections.
So I've had the hormone treatment now for 18 months, I suppose coming up for 2 years, in fact November's one will be the last, it would complete the 2 year treatment. The PSA levels have gone down very significantly down to negligible, less than one and I don't think there's much point in talking about .1s or .2s because I don't think it's that accurate but it's less than 1.
I had one monthly injection principally to test it, test my system to see that I didn't get any untoward side effects and subsequent to that they are once every 3 months. And they consist of Zoladex, this consists of a slug of wax which is inserted below the skin in the tummy.
How does that feel?
Well it's not the most pleasant sort of injection, it depends how well you are with injections. I mean they don't bother me but we're talking about a big needle, I mean we're talking about a needle with a diameter of about 2mms, and it's a solid slug that goes in under the skin. And it's done that way because it slowly dissipates over a period of 3 months.
Do you have a local anaesthetic?
No, you can do if it bothers you, you can and the GP offered it to me, in fact he was more squeamish than I was (laughs). I had the cheek to tell him how to do it one time because the first time left me with a tremendous blue bruise.
Can you feel it once it's under the skin?
No, no, no it depends. I mean if it's given properly its all right, the needle, you know there's a needle being pushed in your tummy but it's sharp and it goes in quite easily. |
