Prostate Cancer

The other aspect, I like to run and I've been running for about 50 years I suppose, even longer now 55. In the first place I was able to run very regularly. I was very fit before starting the treatment and I was able to run all the way through the treatment, but I found towards the end that I was becoming very tired. I found tiredness coming in and a little bit of ennui, lethargy, I was beginning to be not be as on the ball perhaps as I would normally be. Well enough to drive, well enough to do all sorts of things you know it wasn't major or anything like that but I was beginning to find running a little bit more difficult. And in fact I cut my mileage down towards the, I suppose the last 5 or 6 weeks of treatment, sorry the last 3 or 4 weeks of treatment I had to cut training down. After treatment I was still left with the problem.

Having had a word with the GP about it, how long would you expect the tiredness and the physical change to take place after radiotherapy and he said 'Well 3 to 6 months' but its taken me a lot longer to get back. But then also I suppose I'm now 66 and there's an aging process too so it might not be due completely to the treatment. But the fact I had to cut down at that stage, it's taken may be longer to get back into form, due partly to age, not necessarily due to the treatment. But having said that all normal things, after 3, 6 months I was fairly well okay again to do most things.
 

Have the hormone injections had other side effects?

I don't know, I think so in that I, now I can't think of the word, you'd know the word, I'm ever so lazy, I don't want to do anything, if it weren't for my wife I wouldn't even get up in the morning, I'm too bone idle

Do you think that might be the side effects of the injections?

Yes I do, I do, because I used to be someone, I carried on teaching and this is a boast, not full time but when I was 72, and enjoying it. Now I can't remember Ohm's Law, I could no more teach than fly. But this terrible, I mean when you've gone I must get on and finish digging over that little bit outside, I'm dreading it.

The digging?

Just forking it over, planting a few wall flowers over, doing anything is a chore, I don't enjoy it, I used to love it. I mean I used to get up early in the morning, work solidly until I dropped into bed, I have led a very active life, very active, even with my new hip and so on. I could, I felt I'd never stop work.

And this is all you think as a result of the injections?

I think so but I don't know. I said to my GP 'What is my trouble, old age, psychological or the cancer?' and he said 'Yes'. 
 

A little bit of tiredness but that's about all. Apparently it affects people in different ways but all I experienced was a little bit of tiredness. I was still working at that time and my Governor didn't mind me going up there every morning and I was still able to carry on working in the afternoons but it wasn't physical work it was part mental work and part working with your hands because I used to repair fountain pens.