 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Prostate Cancer / October 2006To Flomax or not to Flomax?
I had my seeds implanted on Monday. That was a piece of cake. Last week, my uro gave me a presription for Flomax. His nurse told me to start taking it right after the seeds were implanted. I asked her if I should wait to see if I needed it. She said no, take it right away. I have always had a strong stream with no urinary issues. So, Monday I asked the uro before the implant began if I should take the Flomax. He said yes. I went to see my rad onc yesterday. They did a CT to check for seed placement. He showed me they were perfect. They removed my catheter. No problem there. I then asked him about the Flomax. He said don't take it if I don't need it. He said if I'm getting up three or four times at night, I should start. Yesterday my stream was strong all day. Last night I drank a glass of water before bed, as I usually do, and I slept seven hours straight without getting up. This was the norm before the seeds. Does anyone know why the uro would tell me to take Flomax with no symptoms to suggest it? Could it have any prophylactic effect? John You may not need it right now, but depending on the type of seeds (Pd103 has a 17 day half life compared to I125 with 51 days, hence shorter duration of side effects) somewhere between 4 and 12 weeks post seeding the radiation will have irritated your prostate enough that it probably will be a problem. That goes away almost as fast as it develops, but it is annoying while it's there. If I recall correctly, my symptoms peaked at about 6 weeks from Pd103. I was peeing every hour during the day. Wish you the best. Tom >I had my seeds implanted on Monday. That was a piece of cake. Last > week, my uro gave me a presription for Flomax. His nurse told me to [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > John > I had my seeds implanted on Monday. That was a piece of cake. Last > week, my uro gave me a presription for Flomax. His nurse told me to [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > John I had seeds implanted last November. I am still taking flomax. there are no side effect that are important now from taking flomax. You have not felt the effect of the radioactivity yet. Flomax takes effect relatively fast, of if you wait and you start having pain, then take it. good luck. j. > there are no side effect that are important now from taking flomax. Something for Flomax users to keep in mind...ron The FDA has approved a label change for Flomax and other prostate drugs warning that taking the drug may complicate cataract surgery in male patients. The action came after results of a study showed a connection between the incidence of Intraoperative Floppy Iris Syndrome (IFIS) during cataract surgery and the patients' use of a prostate drug. The FDA then asked surgeons to track the incidence of IFIS in cataract patients on Flomax and other prostate drugs such as Hytrin, Cardura and Uroxatral and to report verified cases. While Flomax does not affect vision or eye health, it does block the dilator muscle in the iris; during cataract surgery, the pupil must be dilated. A patient with IFIS will not only have a poorly dilating pupil but will also have an iris that behaves erratically during cataract surgery, increasing the risk of complications. Dr. Chang suggests that cataract surgeons inquire specifically about prior use of Flomax, since IFIS can occur several years after the drug has been discontinued > I had my seeds implanted on Monday. That was a piece of cake. Great!! > I went to see my rad onc yesterday. They did a CT to check for seed > placement. He showed me they were perfect. They removed my catheter. No > problem there. I then asked him about the Flomax. He said don't take it Double great!!. > if I don't need it. He said if I'm getting up three or four times at > night, I should start. > > Yesterday my stream was strong all day. Last night I drank a glass of > water before bed, as I usually do, and I slept seven hours straight > without getting up. This was the norm before the seeds. There can be immediate inflamation from the skewering. You probably had 20 or more needles stuck in you. These are good sized so there can be a reaction in short order. They gave me Pd103 seeds and I was getting up 3, 4, maybe 5 times a night toward the end of the 1st month. It wasn't horrible but I did need the Flomax. > Does anyone know why the uro would tell me to take Flomax with no > symptoms to suggest it? Could it have any prophylactic effect? My guess is that, like INOVA, he knows exactly when the side effects will come on and has a good guess as to when they will crest and abate. INOVA gave me a chart showing what to take when, then they made me write in the actual dates to re-enforce the schedule in my mind. "Today is Tuesday, I should be taking two of those and a half of that." > John It's amazing how smooth the procedure is. Looks to me like you'll breeze through this. There are some issues ahead. Toward the end and just after the IMRT, you'll probably have more urinary difficulty. Flomax and Aleve will help reduce the inflamation and keep your prostate from compressing your urethra. Out about a month or two from now, you may have some bowel issues. Nothing major, kinda like the day after an all-you-can-eat chili festival. Just follow your doc's advice and judge how you're feeling. -kh I appreciate everyone's response on this. > There can be immediate inflamation from the skewering. You probably > had 20 or more needles stuck in you. These are good sized so there can [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > night toward the end of the 1st month. It wasn't horrible but I did > need the Flomax. Yeah, I had 22 needles with 110 seeds. I can tell I've been stuck, but it's really no big deal. They gave me some ice packs and pain pills, but I haven't used either one. Mine seeds are iodine. I read that the side effects from iodine last longer but are less intense than with palladium. I guess that's because the dose is lower per day but it has a longer half life. Apparently, I have a fairly large urethra. Before I chose Dr. Williams for my treatment, I visited RCOG. They gave me a flow test. The nurse said anything over 10 cc/sec was good. Mine was 21.5. So, I feel pretty blessed at this point. John > ... > Apparently, I have a fairly large urethra. Before I chose Dr. Williams > for my treatment, I visited RCOG. They gave me a flow test. The nurse > said anything over 10 cc/sec was good. Mine was 21.5. So, I feel pretty > blessed at this point. Those of us who are growing old and have had cancer learn to count every one of our blessings. Alan John, Congratulations on the completion of treatment. The hardest part is all over and, hopefully, your cancer is (figuratively speaking) gradually being cooked to death. It's hard for me to think of any reason to take Flowmax if you don't feel the need for it. Like all drugs, it has side effects. I had two HDR (high dose rate) seedings. They gave me Flowmax after the first one and I had a big drop in blood pressure that caused me to get dizzy. I would have passed out if I hadn't made it back to the bed and laid down in time. I told the doctors this might be due to Flowmax because I knew from this group that Ron Figueroa had the same side effect. The docs looked up the side effects and found out that, yes, Flowmax can cause that. They didn't give me any more and, after a couple of days, my blood pressure came back up and I was fine. After the second seeding everything was changed. I could hardly urinate at all. My bladder was so full it felt like I was going to burst. They gave me Flowmax again and, this time, I did okay with it. I stayed on it, gradually decreasing the dose, for about 5 months total. For me, what made me take Flowmax was not frequent urination (I was up about 7 times per night during the worst period) , but difficulty urinating at all. Flowmax solved that problem for me. If you haven't got that problem, and if your current frequency of urination is not a problem for you, I don't see any reason to take it - though as others have said, your urinary problems may get worse before they get better since you've only been exposed so far to part of the radiation in your total treatment. As for why the uro said to take it anyway, all I can give is a psychological explanation. I think a lot of doctors are just deep believers in drugs. They get a huge amount of propaganda from drug company salesmen telling them about how wonderful the drugs are and how they have no serious side effects. A lot of the doctors swallow that propaganda and so their patients swallow the drugs. Some drugs are necessary and sometimes we have to take them even if we don't want to. But, to the best of my knowledge, Flowmax is prescribed to treat a symptom, not a disease or condition. If you don't have that symptom, you don't need the drug. That's my non-expert, worth every penny you paid for it, opinion. Good luck. Alan On October 25 Alan Meyer replied to John: > It's hard for me to think of any reason to take Flowmax if you > don't feel the need for it. Like all drugs, it has side effects. > With all due respect, the correct spelling is FLOMAX. No W. It is tamsulsin hydrochloride. See: http://www.rxlist.com/cgi/generic2/tamsul.htm > As for why the uro said to take it anyway, all I can give is a > psychological explanation. FWIW, my explanation is: ignorance. It's called "cookbook medicine." Regards, Steve J ... > With all due respect, the correct spelling is FLOMAX. No W. ... Right. I forgot that drug names are designed to be trademarked, not to be correct English. But for my money, "flomax" is too staid a name. They should have named it "PeeFreely". (Sorry I.P., I couldn't help myself.) Alan > John, > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > Flowmax can cause that. They didn't give me any more and, after > a couple of days, my blood pressure came back up and I was fine. Thanks Alan, for answering this. I meant to do so earlier today, but had to go out. Ron had the same reaction to ONE Flomax pill. He kept passing out for 24 hours. And this too was after his first HDR treatment. As a person who is allergic to quite a few drugs (penicillin, sulfa, codeine for starters), I am wary of any new drug prescribed for me and mine. And I knew that Flomax caused a drop in blood pressure. However, I didn't take Ron's chronically slow heart rate into consideration. And he is on blood pressure pills for mildly inflated readings.....140/80 I believe. So do be careful out there with any drugs......period. I realize the drug companies have to cover their derrieres by stating any and all side effects, but pay attention to the first 3 or so.....those are the biggies. Cheers.....Ron Figueroa's wife (Heather) > John, > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > Flowmax can cause that. They didn't give me any more and, after > a couple of days, my blood pressure came back up and I was fine. Thanks Alan, for answering this. I meant to do so earlier today, but had to go out. Ron had the same reaction to ONE Flomax pill. He kept passing out for 24 hours. And this too was after his first HDR treatment. As a person who is allergic to quite a few drugs (penicillin, sulfa, codeine for starters), I am wary of any new drug prescribed for me and mine. And I knew that Flomax caused a drop in blood pressure. However, I didn't take Ron's chronically slow heart rate into consideration. And he is on blood pressure pills for mildly inflated readings.....140/80 I believe. So do be careful out there with any drugs......period. I realize the drug companies have to cover their derrieres by stating any and all side effects, but pay attention to the first 3 or so.....those are the biggies. Cheers.....Ron Figueroa's wife (Heather)
|
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.