Still boring

Visited the oncologist this week and the PSA came back at 0.0.
Awesome!

It's been 6 months since I took the last Casodex and 12+ months since my last shot of Lupron.
The meds were a bitch to be on but they did the trick. Cancer is in remission.

I've also started losing some of the 30+ pounds I gained since getting diagnosed 3 yrs ago.
Down 18 lbs with 12-15 more to go.

My energy is good, hot flashes are gone....hell, my blood pressure was 97/64, I think hats the lowest it's been in 3 yrs.

Yeah, it's good to be a boring patient.

Thanks to everyone for your support.

Until next time

Done with hormone treatment!

After 24 months of taking Lupron and Casodex as part of Hormone Therapy, I'm done!

FYI, hormone therapy is designed to cut off the food source of aggressive high risk prostate cancer, testosterone.
So over the past 2 yrs I've tolerated weight gain (20 lbs), hot flashes, mood swings.....yeah, almost turned me into a woman ;)

Big deal, great trade-off to kick cancer's ass and putting it into remission.

Huge thx to my Dr's and the support of my family.

Until next time, be well.

Bob

getting nervous

My last Lupron shot was in December....in meeting with my Oncologist, Dr. Reza, he opted to not give me a shot in March. At the time, I was riding a winning streak of 5 straight quarterly PSA scores of "less than 0.01" which means the Hormone Ablation was working.

Cancer is in remission.

Next week, 6/14 I go back in for my first PSA since being off Lupron. I'm still taking Casodex which is the second hormone ablation drug we used to beat the cancer into remission.

I have to admit, I'm a little nervous about how the test will turn out. I remember my friend Rana telling me that for years she felt nervousness when going in for regular tests....and they all turned out fine as she's a 10+ yr Breast Cancer survivor.

I'm sure everything will be fine.

more later

day by day, feeling more normal

It's been 5 months since my last shot of Lupron and I can start to feel my body getting back to 'normal' or should I say pre-hormrone treatment (my wife would argue I was ever normal :))

Next visit to the oncologist is June 14 for the all important PSA check. I'm feeling good about it.

On a side note, if you're like me, your heart just aches for the folks in Joplin, MO and the other communities devastated by the devastating tornadoes. I need to find a way to best help my fellow man/woman/child, even though I don't know them....some day I may need help too.
Think about what you can do

Make every day great!

energy is picking up

It's been 4 months since my last Lupron shot and it's weaning out of my system. That means more energy, less hot flashes and getting back to 'normal'. Feeling good.

I'm typing this from 34K' in the air...with my bride on our way to Cabo. Inner Circle trip and it should be awesome. fun in the sun.

Keep talking to your friends, fathers, brothers, coworkers about Prostate Cancer, we need to keep raising awareness and maybe we'll be able to get the NFL to wear light blue like they do pink.

now go out and Make it a Great Day!

minor victory?

I met with my oncologist this morning for my quarterly PSA check and check up.
We agreed to stop one of my hormone therapy drugs, Lupron but I will continue with Casodex.

there isn't a ton of evidence that staying on both drugs for 1 yr versus 2 yrs is beneficial.
So I'm stopping at 18 months but while I didn't get my infusion today of Lupron, the side effects will most likely linger for another 6 months or so.

Feels like a minor victory and mentally I feel like this is a good decision.

enjoying the NCAA tourney? my bracket is a mess...

rumors are false

the rumors of my disappearance are false....I've just been procrastinating far too long on the latest post. Hope you all had great holidays, I did, they were relaxing, quite, awesome time with family.
Hell, we even got 4" of snow in NC on 12/26.

My last Oncologist visit was late December, latest PSA was 0.01 so the hormone therapy is working as planned. I have 18 months under my belt with 6 more months to go. Originally the Dr and I talked about being on hormone therapy for 2 years and we're sticking to it.

My Dr. did say that after the 2 years is done, the Lupron and Casodex will linger in my body for 6-9 months afterwards which means the side effects will continue. Speaking of, since my last shot on 12/20, the freakin hot flashes are at a new level, more dramatic than ever. It sucks, but it beats hearing "your cancer has spread"....so I'll continue to carry my towel, sweat, freeze, sweat, freeze :)

So until next time....which I promise won't be too long...be well and Go PACKERS!!!

Holy High Blood Pressure!

Well, today was the quarterly check in with my Oncologist, oh happy day.

the usual blood test/PSA results should come back tomorrow or Thursday. What was interesting today was not the beginning of the appointment where they take vitals and my BP came in at 142/88, a little high but nothing alarming. It was the second part of the appointment where I got the shot of Lupron where things got interesting.

Not sure why but they decided to take my blood pressure again and just for context, I was now in what they call the 'infusion room'. So when i entered, there must have been 10-12 people sitting in recliners and hooked up to their chemotherapy treatments. I'm not afraid to admit that the anxiety goes up a bit thinking about what may or may not lie ahead for me.

So they take the first reading and it's 172/104....yeah, a bit high.
Second reading 167/102....making progress but the nurse was still kind of wigged out.
Third reading 168/104. This time she talked to my Oncologist and he said "go ahead with the Lupron shot, he's must be a little nervous".

The only thing that changed from 3 months ago was that last time Doc said he wasn't sure keeping me on hormone therapy more than 1 year would do me any good.....today he said he definitely wants to try to keep me on for 2 years. It sucks. Muscle atrophy, fatigue, hot flashes...all the side effects that aren't fun. BUT, if it keep the cancer in check, I'll put up with it.

PSA update coming soon.

Be Well

The real deal

one year ago today, Kathy and I sat down with Dr. Kris Gaston my urologist here in Charlotte and over a 55 minute period he laid it out on the line. "You have the real deal" meaning the aggressive, high risk prostate cancer...not the 'normal prostate cancer'.

He had us read 2 books from 2 leading PC Dr's....Peter Scardino and John Walsh and after absorbing just over 1,000 pages in one week, Dr. Gaston said "most of what you read doesn't apply to you unfortunately. We're going to have to throw everything under the kitchen sink at this, surgery, radiation, chemo, hormone therapy, everything."

Well 3 out of 4 so far and fortunately no chemo yet. If you hear I need chemo, that's not good news.
But I won't go there.

Today I have my quarterly visit with my Oncologist, PSA test and the ever exciting Lupron shot in the derriere.

Speaking of the derriere....how are your NCAA brackets shaping up? What a great year in the tourney....since my chances of winning the pool are slim, I'm pulling for Northern Iowa and Cornell to make it to the final 4. Go underdogs.

I still can't believe it's been a year since getting the cancer news.

later

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