Ways To Manage 3 Common Symptoms Of Advanced Prostate Cancer
Once prostate cancer spreads to other parts of the body, including the bones and lymph nodes, it becomes incurable.
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But advanced prostate cancer doesn’t necessarily mean a death sentence. The disease can be kept under control for years at a time with the proper management of symptoms, according to Prostate Cancer UK.
This type of therapy is called palliative care. It’s designed to manage pain through emotional, physical and spiritual support.
Here is a list of symptoms for metastasized prostate cancer and ways to treat the pain.
Urinary problems:
If the cancer has advanced to areas around the urethra and bladder, it’s possible that you’ll begin to experience incontinence, blood in the urine, difficulty urinating or kidney problems. A leaky bladder, or incontinence, happens when the cancer grows in the bladder or in the surrounding muscles.
To manage this, you can buy absorbent pads and pants, get a prescription for an anti-cholinergic, try pelvic floor exercises or ask your physician about a catheter as an option. For bloody urine, this may be directly linked to the blood clotting medication you take. Radiotherapy may be able to stop the bleeding.
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If you’re having difficulty urinating, you may need the catheter to drain your bladder or medication called alpha-blocker to relax bladder muscles. If the cancer is so advanced that it’s blocking the urinary tract to and from the kidneys, you may need a nephrostomy, where a draining tube and bag are placed on your body, or a stent to allow the flow of urine.
