Dad: G9, mets in spine, PSA 70.
Hi everyone. My Dad is on the 2nd day of Zytiga now, praying for a good response. Quick question, over Christmas he was given a 2 week supply of Dexomethasone as following radiotherapy he went off his food, was aching ... he was really not good at all. These meds helped and he started eating well again and had a lot more energy.
Anyway, he has stopped taking that now and has been given prednisone along with the Zytiga. He has been complaining of upper body weakness/stiffness. He isn't sleeping well at all and when he wakes he can't seem to move his arms very well to get in to a comfortable position. Basically he feels his arms/shoulders won't support his weight when he tries to adjust position. He has experienced this in his legs before, quite recently but this upper body weakness is new. I'm not thinking this could be a side effect of the Zytiga, as far as I am aware this isn't a common side effect and he's only on his second day of meds. Spinal cord compression has crossed my mind but don't want to overly panic about
that either. His Dr did say that the 'spots' in his spine aren't near any nerves which makes me think it's not likely to be SCC. Just wondering if anybody has experienced anything similar. Is upper body weakness a common problem at this stage? If I let myself I could go down the sheer panic route I experienced a few weeks ago... And I'm trying hard not to, he's not a well man, it's worrying for all of us.
This past few weeks has been tough and it seems he's up and down... I suppose I'm wanting some reassurance that things like this may happen and that there's a chance things will improve.
We are all trying very hard to take each day as it comes and I'm still hopeful that Zytiga will do the job.... It's just not very pleasant for him at all as he had picked up a lot.
Any thoughts/advice?
Post Edited (Kathy77) : 1/11/2018 6:23:45 PM (GMT-7)