Wednesday, October 28, 2009

and the new PSA is......

...exactly what we had hoped for, a big drop. The PSA is now 0.94....woo hoo!
As a reminder, it was 8.35 a month ago which was considered high by all standards, especially when you consider my entire pelvic area received radiation and the prostate is long gone from surgery.

so the hormone treatments are working as we wanted and I'll go in again in a month for another PSA and then probably every 3 months after that for checkups. The only downside so far have been some minor side effects but nothing that can't be dealt with.

My HT (short for hormone treatments) are Lupron shots and daily Casodex pills and they suppress testosterone, which is the fuel for prostate cancer.

When your testosterone is being throttled, there are bound to be side effects. So, with the help of Lupron and Casodex, looks like I'll be spending some time aboard the Good Ship Menopause with all the physical baggage that entails. It’s a trip that most men don’t expect to take.

The side effect that surprised me most were the hot flashes — not that I got them, I was expecting that, but by how intense they were. I've been having them more frequently and it's obvious when I do....I'm flush and sweat profusely. Not too fun when it's during a meeting which fortunately hasn't been too often.

Given the choice between hot flashes or having cancer ravage my body...it's a no brainer.
So for those of you I work with, have fun with me about this...it's about all I can do at this point.

Again, as I've said all along, THANK YOU to you all for your support.

All the best

Thursday, October 22, 2009

new PSA coming

Hey I know, I know, my blogging is getting slow, sorry about that but I warned you I'm a rookie at this.

So today, another Dr. visit and I have to tell you it's kind of funny. You check in and they say 'how are you doing?'. Then the nurse calls you in and says "good to see you again". It's good manners, real polite but sometimes I want to respond by laughing and saying.. "It's good to see you too, I just wish it was not in this office and more like the grocery store".

Are you kidding me! my goal is to not stop in every month to get poked, prodded, pricked with a needle and then asked, how are you doing?. Ah, sorry for the rant but i find it kind of ironic.

Okay, more blood drawn today and I'll get the PSA results tomorrow (hopefully, you know, another 'do the test, then wait'). Dr Reza is pretty confident the PSA level will go down by a good margin so we'll see, as a reminder it last was 8.35.

I most likely won't blog again until Sunday, my son Bradley and I are camping with the Cub Scouts this weekend, being a Webelo this is our third year. Forecast is a little iffy, 50% chance of rain friday afternoon through saturday evening. Last year we got soaked so hoping we get the 50% of un-rain.

hope you had a great week, make it a great weekend!

Bob

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Health update

okay, newest update on the health front....so to recap a little history:

- Feb 28, first PSA = 40.6
- Mar 6, second PSA = 58
- Mar 16, biopsy - confirmed, prostate cancer
- Radiation from 5/19-6/30, total of 30 treatments
- surgery, Aug 3rd
- miles walked since surgery = 156
- post surgery PSA (hoping for .1 or .2) = 7.9 (high)
- started hormone treatment on 9/30
- next PSA taken, 10/22

so, I've started 'stage 3' of my treatments and it's proactive so we can starve the cancer cells that appear to still be in my body. The hormone treatment should drop the PSA dramatically so we're anxious for the results coming next friday.

the beat-down continues

I promise, I'll have more regular posts.

Later

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Whoa! I've been quiet....

Sorry about that, just pretty busy.

last weekend we had a chance to visit great friends in Columbus, OH and it was a perfect weekend. 60's and sunny...pretty rare for Columbus really but timed great. My buddy Kevin and I went to the Ohio State-Wisconsin game which was great. We started with a non-traditional tailgate which included fresh fried lake Erie perch...freakin awesome!

The game was pretty interesting and OSU was happy their defense and special teams showed up, otherwise they would have been beat. final score, OSU 31, Wisconsin, 13.

then we spend part of sunday 'Geocaching'. I hadn't heard of this but you have to check it out. They have a great iPhone app that makes it great. It's basically a high-tech scavenger hnt but anyone can 'place' an item and post it to the web for others to find. You can search for 'Caches' close to you and some can be relocated and the web tracks where they have 'traveled'. check it out, it's fun. www.geaocaching.com

On the health front, feeling very good. I go in for another PSA test next week thursday and will have an update on friday as to whether the hormone treatments are working.

That's it for now, sorry about the delay in posts, I'll check in again soon.

Be well.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Pints for Prostates

I attended a fundraising event last light that was a ton of fun. 'Pints for Prostates' are events held across America, usually organized by a local advocate and it's in conjunction with an organization called UsTOO International. You can find them and more information about these events at www.ustoo.org/pints. check it out.

So last night's event was held at a newer micro brewery here in Charlotte, the Olde Mecklenburg Brewery. There was live music, brats, a brewery tour and of course pints :)

There were about 75 people there and it was fun, most of all, events like this help raise awareness that 1 in 6 men get prostate cancer. All proceeds help fund education, research and patient support.

The odds of a man getting prostate cancer are greater than the odds of a woman getting breast cancer yet there isn't enough awareness or research being done to find a cure.

I'll keep raising some 'pints for prostates', maybe you could too.

See you next post