In late July 2019, I suddenly felt a very sharp pain in my left thigh (along the crural nerve) and my doctor first suspected a herniated disk, but a CT scan ruled that out. Within a week, blisters appeared around my lower left leg, between my knee and my ankle : shingles were diagnosed. One month later, exhausted by that painful experience, I asked for a complete physical examination, blood analysis, etc. Everything was perfect... except for... PSA = 55. A prostate RMI showed 2 lesions, one PIRADS V in the right transition zone and one PIRADS IV in the left transition zone. A prostate biopsy subsequently produced the following Gleason scores out of 12 samples: 5 x G6 (3+3); 5 x G7 (3+4); 2 x G7 (4+3). A subsequent bone scintigraphy showed a metastasis in the pubic bone.

What to do? My urologist proposes hormonal therapy (Casodex 50mg pill + Eligard 22,5 mg injection) and may add radiotherapy later. The nickname of that therapy, i.e. "chemical castration" is quite scary! Already a vegetarian for several years, I have decided to explore other diets such as rawfoodism and fasts, but I am debating whether or not to take the hormonotherapy.

I would be happy and grateful to read from YANA members with similar experiences.

Thank you!

I chose to accept the hormone therapy proposed by my urologist :

Casodex 50 mg 1 tablet daily for 30 days, and Eligard 22,5 mg injection every 3 months.

He also recommended Radiotherapy for 12 weeks, 5 days/week, or Apalutamide 1 tablet daily. I declined both, having decided to see first what the androgen deprivation treatment would do. So far (after 15 days of Casodex and 5 days after the Eligard injection, I have no side-effect. May it stay that way. I'll have my PSA checked again in 3 months before my next Eligard injection.

I received the results of my blood analysis today and my PSA is....... 0.89 ! Very good news indeed!

In January, my PSA was 52. Next check-up in 3 months!

I had another PSA analysis in October, after 9 months of Eligard treatment (injection every 3 months) and my PSA (initially at 52 then at 0.89 3 months later) is now at 0.74. It looks like good news, but a new bone scintigraphy was prescribed to check whether the upper-arm and thigh pain is a treatment side effect or is due to new metastases.

I will update my story when I have the results.

After 3 years of Eligard treatment (injection every 3 months), my PSA is still at 0.58 and secondary effects are very few. The last 2 yearly scintigraphy bone scans have been identical, showing no progress in the pelvis bone metastasis initially found. Thus, so far this treatment has worked well.

Paul's e-mail address is: pg796354 AT gmail.com (replace "AT" with "@")