Cabo was great

awesome weather, great resort (Capella Pedregal) and good friends

I played golf at Cabo Del Sol, one of the top courses in the world...a Jack Nicklaus design.
played like shit...too many blow up holes which is easy to do if you try to play this course after only playing 27 total holes.

I also had an opportunity to raise awareness about PC while on the trip...the tats are a great conversation starter.

no go forth and live life to it's fullest.

nope, it's a major victory

I can't tell you how my energy level and attitude is sky high since monday.
Getting the news that we're stopping the Lupron injections after 18 months....and then hearing the latest PSA test was 0.0 it has me pumped!

Really pumped...I'm kicking cancer's ass, it's in remission and I want to thank my oncologist, Dr. Reza Nazemzadeh and his nurse Allison for GREAT care.

this is good....really good.

And I need to continue my messaging, raising awareness so that other men realize 1 in 6 will get PC and 1 in 2 men will get any type of cancer. Man up, get your PSA checked.

Guilty as charged your honor....

Man, I've got to be the worst blogger in the world. Geez.

A lot has happened since my last post including:

- Serious 'plumbing issues' that I let go on waaay too long, actually more than 15 months
- which prompted a follow up visit to Duke CC
- A failed Cystoscopy on 2/15 at Duke Cancer Center (yes, research Cystoscopy)
- A GB Packer Super Bowl win!
- A successful Cystoscopy and dilation today, 2/23.

My Prostate Cancer surgery was 8/09 and about 8-10% of patients get what's called a 'Stricture'
Homework assignment - research Stricture as it relates to the Bladder Neck and Urethra.

I'll be back tomorrow for more

oh...and as to why I'm 'Guilty'? I'll get to that...

Movember - no, it's not a joke

Movember - it's a campaign to increase awareness around men's health and raising $ for prostate cancer research. 'Mo' is slang in Australia for Mustache.
It started in Australia 6 years ago and is now in 7+ countries. He is a link to my page, take a look.
http://us.movember.com/mospace/457931/

This is very important to me because it's probably the single largest fundraiser around prostate cancer research. Last year there were over 250K paraticipants raising over $42M. I'm the leader of my company team and driven to be one of the top 10 teams in the USA. But I need your help.

October is Pink and Komen is everywhere (which is great)....I need your help in elevating the awareness of Prostate Cancer. every 19 minutes a man dies from PC. Before I die, we need to find a cure. 1 in 6 men will get prostate cancer (1 in 8 women will get breast cancer) so if you could at the very least, make a $6 donation, or $19 donation....every nickel counts.

Thank you for your support

back pain, good news, part 2

okay, the back pain isn't being caused by the spread of cancer, the bone scan was completely clean which is AWESOME. So my Oncologist put me on some steroids and my GP ordered a MRI.

MRI results from yesterday reveal a herniated disc that is pinching some nerves. Next step is appointment with back specialist. Don't ask me how I got this, I have no idea but what I do know is it hurts like hell.

Speaking of the steroids, most of you know that the hormone therapy drugs I'm on now cause me some hot flashes...well, it seems the steroids are accentuating the hot flashes. In the last 2 days I've sweat so much due to a hot flash that I need to change my shirt...soaking wet, dripping, not fun.

It's a bitch this getting old thing but looking on the bright side, the sun is shining and my feet hit the floor this morning so my life is good.

One year anniversary

One year ago today I had my surgery, the radical prostatectomy at Duke. Man does time fly.
Some days it seems like the surgery was so long ago and other days it feels like it was a month ago.

Since then, I've been on a mission to raise awareness and have checked out almost all of the drugs currently in the clinical trial pipeline that are targeting Prostate Cancer.

Another thing that I've done since finding out I have cancer is I've paid more attention to the obits in the paper....yeah, yeah, I know...but you would be amazed at how many people succumb to cancer.

Cancer sucks

I go back to see my surgeon in 3 weeks, the one year checkup, we'll see what he has to say and if I'm 'normal' in terms of recovery.

that's it for today, later.

One Year ago today I was told......

"your biopsy results are positive, you have prostate cancer. Your Gleason score is a 9 out of 10 which is not good."

It was a Monday morning that life changed a year ago. While I was feeling a ton of anxiety because of the high PSA tests, hearing these words, the confirmation was a wake up call to say the least.

My attitude immediately switched to one of...."Okay, what's next, how do we beat this sh_t."
The battle begins and for me, it starts mentally. I'm naturally a 'glass is half full' kind of guy and here is where I really need it because I'm the 'marker' that my family will follow...if I'm upbeat, they will be positive, if I'm down and out, they will get scared, especially the kids.

More tests to come but in my mind, I'm ready for the challenge.

The Journey begins...

provenge

kind of sounds like the drug from the Harrison Ford movie Fugitive (it was actually Provasic or something like that).

well, this drug, Provenge is real and could get FDA approval as early as May 1, 2010.
The Seattle-based biotech company, Dendreon, is focused on targeting and eradicating cancer. This is a revolutionary new way to fight cancer. The key is that DNDN's scientists are on the forefront of introducing a new class of therapy known as active cellular immunotherapies ("ACIs"). This approach uses live human cells to trick the patient's own immune system into fighting cancer.

very cool...drug advances are going to be my hope going forward so focus on research is high on my priority list. Research funds won't come until overall awareness happens. so next time you see me, ask me for a blue 'prostate cancer awareness' wristband. Maybe I should call Lance to get him to promote greater awareness of prostate cancer. Now where did I put his cell number.....

Later :)

Dennis Hopper

I just picked up this article....

The famous legendary actor, Dennis Hopper, is losing his battle against prostate cancer. He has been fighting this cancer since 2002, and only in October of 2009 has the general public known about his disease. When diagnosed in 2002, Hopper did undergo treatment at the University of Southern California but kept the cancer story away from the media until this past October.

Just recently, the doctors have informed him that the disease has now spread to his bones and have told Hopper that it is incurable. Hopper is now 73 years old.

Hopper has just finished filmng for the US tv show Crash, and is now saying goodbye to his family and friends after being told the devastating news. Hopper had been telling his friends that he had an intuition that he was losing his battle even before this latest statement by his doctors.

The actor is also famous for starring in movies such as Blue Velvet, Apocalypse Now and Easy Rider. He remains married to his fifth wife, 42-year-old Victoria Duffy

, and they have a six-year-old daughter.

There are about 190,000 prostate cancer cases per year and 30,000 will die from this annually. It is the most common cancer occurring in men.

My thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family.....my curiosity is running wild. What type of treatment did he undertake in 2002 when he was first diagnosed? What has he done since?

Cancer sucks, we need to find a cure.

how low can you go, second try :))

the PSA results are in....drum roll please.....and the results are 0.03!

Woo Hoo, the treatments are doing exactly what we want them to do, stop the cancer cells in their tracks. It's great news and gives me a ton of positive energy.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support.

another post soon, recapping our thanksgiving vacation.

later

Another PSA

Hey everyone, hope this post finds you well and getting reading for a big Thanksgiving Feast.
YUM! Holy man, I can't personally wait because my appetite is insatiable right now. Can anyone point me to the nearest Weight Watchers meeting?

today, another visit with the Medical Oncologist and another blood test. Dr. Reza fully expects the number to drop again from 0.94 to an even lower number. We'll find out tomorrow or monday and I'll let you all know the results.

We did talk about side effects and unfortunately there are a few. I already mentioned the appetite and the weight thing but we mainly talked about the hot flashes. Man, do I have a full appreciation for what women go through, amen sisters, you have my full respect. Holy shit, the HF's have been full on lately, especially at night which makes it particularly difficult to sleep. One minute you wake up in a full sweat, sheets are soaking, then next you're freezing. With all the tossing and turning, shedding covers then diving under them for warmth, I'm getting about 3 hours of total rest each night. not good

so, I'm trying some Flaxseed Oil to hopefully tone down the HF's. We'll see.

Okay my friends, go have yourselves an AWESOME Thanksgiving, me and the fam are heading down to cocoa beach/cape canaveral which should be very cool. Oh, wish us luck on the weather, if it's good, the space shuttle will land in FL on friday and we hope to watch.

All the best

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

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

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

Great news

Not one to beat around the bush, the scans are clean....Woo Hoo!
We met with my medical oncologist today and both the bone and CT scans were clean, no cancer showing up, which is awesome news. Not sure why the PSA is showing up so high and it could be a false positive or due to the fact there is still some cancer lingering.

So, to take a proactive approach, I've started hormone treatments and then we'll check my PSA every month. Dr. expects it to drop from 8.35 down to "almost nothing" in the first month.
We're going to take away the food source of the cancer.

Understandably, we're jazzed.

To top it off, on the business side we finished our 3rd quarter with a bang and I'm incredibly proud of my team. When the dust settles, it looks like we'll finish around 171% against quota, the team was rockin.

But, as those of you know, in the sales game, you get about 8 hours to celebrate (and most of those you're sleeping) and then it's back to chasing another quarterly quota. Fun stuff.

another post coming tomorrow, I attended a fundraising event tonight and will share more later.

See ya

more tests...

We met with a Medical Oncologist today, Dr. Reza, sticking with our step by step approach. Good guy, communicated well and our homework/reading has paid off by way of having a good understanding of what is discussed.

So, the next step is to repeat the CT Scans of the pelvis and torso areas and also the bone scan.
Both will be done in the next 3 days. Dr. Reza is concerned by the high PSA post operation so he wants to get after the 'micro cells' that have spread. After the results of the scans are done, Dr. Reza will 're-stage' my cancer. We have no evidence that I have metastatic cancer so with the tests we'll be looking to see if the cancer has spread to the bones or other lymph nodes.

Starting next week I will start hormone therapy which most likely will last 2-3 years.
Once the treatments start, I will go back each month for a PSA check and what surprised me is the Dr. expects the PSA to drop immediately, first month, he would want it below 1 after the first month. Again, to refresh, my PSA, pre-surgery was 58 which is off the charts. My PSA post surgery was 7.9 which is considered high.

By taking away the food source of the cancer (shutting off the testosterone), the goal is to stop the growth and spreading. Hormone therapy won't kill the cancer, just stop the growth.

Dr. Reza wants to be aggressive with the hormone treatment and I agree.
They took blood today, another PSA, results will be in tomorrow.

more news tomorrow.

Next step in treatment

First we did radiation, then surgery, stupid cancer is still sticking around so it's on to the next attack.

We'll learn more of the details after tomorrow/Tuesday, Sept 22 when we meet with the medical oncologist to discuss hormone therapy and possibly chemo.

One thing I'll want to do is get another bone scan done, maybe another CT scan to try and determine if this has spread to the bone and/or other lymph nodes. My surgeon speculates that it's quite possible other lymph nodes are carrying cancer and in a previous conversation with the medical oncologist from Duke, he indicated my original CT scan showed slight enlargement of 'aortic lymph nodes'.

More news later.

Happy 80th Birthday Mr. Palmer

If you don't already know, today is the 80th birthday of Arnold Palmer, the King, the working mans golfer. For over 50 years he has graced the golfing world with his 'go for broke' style of play and his down to earth honesty and genuine personality.

Arnie as he's affectionately known is also a prostate cancer survivor.

Mr. Palmer, Happy 80th Birthday and here's to many, many more.

It's done

no more prostate, it's gone. As a refresher, we found a good team of doctors at Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center so sunday night Kathy and I drove up, had dinner, relaxed. Surgery on monday took a little over 2 hours and I didn't get a room until 6 hours later....so I was stuck in Post-op. oh well, things could have been worse.

Monday night was a bitch, no sleep because every 2 hours someone is coming into the room to take vital signs, draw blood, etc. Tuesday I was running on fumes, barely able to keep my eyes open so a quick nap here and there helped.

Tuesday night was much better pretty fair night of sleep but still playing catch up.
Wednesday, discharged and sent home. I was feeling pretty good this morning and figured I could get more sleep in my own home with less interruptions.

The drive home was bad, we were instructed to stop 3 times, get out and walk to avoid blood clots. The worst part were the potholes/rough roads...they tensed up my body something fierce.
Just took a walk with Bradley and that felt good but tiring.

I'm bushed, more posts coming.

Bob

Good pre-op meetings

We spent most of yesterday (thursday) at Duke Medical Center getting all of the pre-op work done including a meeting with the surgeon. I'm feeling good about the surgeon and the team for the operation on monday.

During the testing we had a great conversation with the nurse, who by the way was hilarious and fun to talk to and most of all very reassuring and confident which was great. I was a little hyped, in fact, the BP was 144/100 so more than a little elevated. :)

Monday is surgery, around 10:45am eastern time. It's time to get this shit out, rehab and get back to normal.

Maybe another post sunday night.