As Far As The (Prostate) Cancer........

 ........even if one is in remission, one continues to see one's oncologist, and I see mine once every three months.

I'm not as much "in control" of it as I am with my dementia, so there's really only the treatment to tell you about.

The whole thing began in early 2018. Our son, Jason had passed 7 months prior and our lives were still in turmoil. 

I credit my VA Nurse Practioner, who, during some routine labwork noticed my PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) going up and up. Due to her diligence, I was able to get into the VA's "Community Care" program and was able to be seen by doctors at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) at their Atlanta Hospital. I won't go into detail regarding why I was so glad to be seen by them, but let's just say they saved my life.

The first item of "business" was for my urologist to determine the amount of cancer I had sustained.

First I need to tell you I have had an enlarged prostate gland most of my adult life, so first we had to eliminate BPH - which is "Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia" another name for enlarged prostate -  which we did in the doctor's office. And yes, one hears the *SNAP!* of the gloves for this procedure, the importance of which cannot be overstated. You're trying to catch it early enough to prevent metastases to the bones. A bone scan was done and proved negative for metasteses.

Depending on what the urologist finds with the 12-needle biopsy (ouch!), you are then assigned a "Gleason Score". This score indicates the speed with which one's cancer is growing. Mine was 8. "Extrmely Fast" so there was no time to be wasted.

My doctors opted for both radiation and chemical treatment - the former of which began the same day and continued daily for 5 weeks. I needed very aggressive treatment if I were to survive.

The "chemical" part of the treatment is designed to stop the creation of testosterone in the prostate gland, causing it to produce some very - shall we say interesting - side effects. I received these injections once every 3 months until we finally stopped them to see if I could regain my libido.

At the culmination of the radiation procedures, the doctors performed a surgery known as a "Booster". The only thing I can say about the booster is that whatever they did up in there must have worked because my PSA level has been too low to register on the machine the lab used. Following the booster procedure, I was given a pain pump and told to use it when I needed to. I needed to. 

When the time came to remove the equipment hanging out my butt, the only way I can describe the way it felt was a set of jumper cables were removed by grabbing a hold of the end and running the other way. 

It is important to note that a prostatectomy was not done, nor is one expected.

When It was over, and I went for my oncologist visit and Dr. Taha had just one question: "Bill", he said. "How does it feel to be cancer-free?"

It feels pretty damn good! I hope I have answered at least some of the questions you may have had regarding prostate cancer. Dude! Get yourself checked! Never mind the *snap* of the glove - you'll get over it.

Thanks as always for reading my journal and don't forget to register for The Walk To End Alzheimer's

Bill