Confusion Or Spread To Brain

My husband has advanced prostate cancer and it has spread to his bones but he choose not to do chemo.  Since the middle of Aug. he has been in a wheel chair and had declined a lot.  The last few days he has been confused and last night it became much worse.  No changes in medication recently.  His blood count was checked yesterday and they said it was stable and his oxygen level is 99.  Do you think the cancer may have spread to the brain and should we ask them to do a brain scan to see if it has or just wait a few days and see what happens?  They told us in March he had 6 months to a year without chemo.  Some days he has little pain in his bones and others he struggles with.  Overall he has done good so this is a real surprise since it does not seem to be dreaming.  It started about midnight last night and he is still confused and does not make sence in some ways and then others he seems fine.  If it is in the brain can someone tell me what that means?

Thanks

Lanell

Hi Lanell,

 Cancer does spread.  If it has spread to the brain, what would he do.  Since he did not go for chemo says to me the he might not seek treatment for brain cancer. 

What I would do is to sak the doctor for stronger pain meds. 

Steve

My hubby also has bone mets and is terminal.  He also suffers from confusion.  I spoke with the doctor because I, like you, was worried there may be a brain tumour.  She assured me that if it was a brain tumour there would be many more symptoms other than confusion.  She said the confusion is caused from the meds, as well as the disease itself.  He is on medication now which is helping with the confusion a little.  Best advice I can give you is talk to your doctor and express your concerns.

Regards,

Princess Maggie

hi

confusion may be caused by dyselectrolytemia as well. maybe a serum sodium check is in order. hope he does well.

prasad

I agree he needs a serum metabolic panel performed with BUN and Creatnine performed.  Also for the record, WHAT ARE HIS BLOOD counts.  A Oxygen saturation is meaningless if his Hemolobin/Hct are much below 10 and 30 respectively.  Even with good oxygenation this can lead to hypoxia in the the brain and confusion.  Is he still on ADT?

I would give chemo a try as its toxicity is not THAT bad and if he responds well then it is worth doing.

On 10/20/2007 Witchdoctor wrote:

I agree he needs a serum metabolic panel performed with BUN and Creatnine performed.  Also for the record, WHAT ARE HIS BLOOD counts.  A Oxygen saturation is meaningless if his Hemolobin/Hct are much below 10 and 30 respectively.  Even with good oxygenation this can lead to hypoxia in the the brain and confusion.  Is he still on ADT?

I would give chemo a try as its toxicity is not THAT bad and if he responds well then it is worth doing.

His Hematocrit last week was 28.2 Hemoglobin 10 and Platelet 94 and RBC was 4.6.  Looking at the Metabolic panel that was done on 9-4-07 all were in normal range except glucose was 185, calcuim 7.8,protein5.0, albumin 2.6, and alkaline phosphatase 813.  The confusion has improved as of today.  It has lasted about one week and was extremely bad at times.  He does not even recall most of last week.  It is almost time for another hormone injection.  His speech got very slurred and has improved a litle also.  He has blood transfusions almost every three weeks.  The confusion started about 10 days after the last transfusion he had.  I appreciate all the information. 

Lanell