Hi Dogtag,

Welcome to Cancer Chat. I am so sorry to learn that your Husband is suffering a lot of pain. I cannot speak for your Husband, as I have never had any prostate trouble. Has he mentioned this to his care team? I have in fact had 2 bouts of primary breast cancer. Both were treated with hormone therapy after surgery and both caused considerable pain In all of my joints.

Has your husband been given any pain-killers? I have been on hormone therapy for 7 years and only stopped this year. I had to resort to pain killers, but these made me extremely sleepy and had other side-effects too, so I eventually had to stop taking them.

I presume that you attend all your husband’s appointments with him? This is a good idea. I would also advise you both to draw up a list of questions each time before yo attend a consultation.

Please keep in touch and let us know how your husband gets on. There is always someone here if either of you want to talk.

Kind regards,

Jolamine xx

Hi

i have metistic PC in my shoulder and ribs, I hate taking pain killers but if it gets to much I have co-codermol, the shoulder had one session of radiotherapy on it. The pain eased a vast amount I also had chortisone injection there, if there's no cancer in the shoulder I would certainly ask for the injection..

The hormone therapy does cause different side effects one being bone pain as it attacks the cancer, there are plenty of others hot flushes fatigue, everyone is different to how it affects them.

Hope this helps

joe

Hi,

I am sorry to hear about your husband’s pain. Constant pain is very hard to live with. I have had 2 bouts of primary breast cancer. The first time was 7 years ago and I had a lumpectomy followed by Tamoxifen for 1 year. A year later I found another lump in the same breast and had a double mastectomy, followed by 6 years of Letrozole. In that time I have also had both knees replaced.  My pain started to increase as soon as I started hormone therapy. I firstly noticed pain in my arms not long after surgery, but I developed bilateral Lymphoedema in my arms and hand shortly after that and this caused the pain to increase further.

I am a type 2 Diabetic and have peripheral neuropathy in both legs. This started on the right ankle but now radiates up both legs from toes to thighs. The pain here increased after I had both knees replaced, although the post-surgical pain has now subsided. I have severe back pain in my lumbar region and am constantly being told how stiff my back is. In fact there is now pain in every joint in my body and this has not died down since I finished taking Letrozole a couple of months ago.  I cannot take Ibuprofen which was offered in the early stages. I tried Gabapentin and that did nothing for the pain. I then tried Lyrica or Pregabelin and Paracetemol.

This had a very slight effect on the pain, so I continued to use this.  I was then referred to my local pain clinic and was prescribed Bu-Trans patches. Initially I was on 10mg, but my GP increased this to 15mg. Again, this helped very slightly, but I developed an allergy to the adhesive in the patches. I eventually had to stop using the Lyrica, as I had some nasty side-effects.

There were 20 people attending these pain management classes. I tried all sorts of therapies  including discussions on pain management, exercise, mindfulness, relaxation techniques. This was run by a Psychologist and a Physiotherapist. I also joined self-help groups, attended a physio and an acupuncturist. Sadly, I haven’t found anything that touches the pain and the medication prescribed caused extreme fatigue, weight gain, muscle pain, bone pain, nausea,  shortness of breath,  hot flushes, lack of concentration, insomnia, depression, blurred vision, dizziness, dry mouth, constipation, increased sweating, increased thirst, itchy skin,  and memory problems.

I hope that this is of some help to you.

Kind regards,

Jolamine xx

Hi

thank you for that. 

Hormone therapy usually causes joint pain it would appear. I'm not sure the pains in his abdomen etc is the same. 

Oh yes!  I always go to appointments. He has a habit of hearing only what he chooses and doesnt remember everything - we make a good team at appointments

Hopefully we will keep in touch

I hope things go well for you. 

Thanks Joe

That is all really helpful.