Year Three Of Being In Remission!

By Bill Craig

    To be honest, I hadn't given much thought to the cancer lately, but once one gets diagnosed, one's doctors and nurses (The "Oncology Team") follow their patient (s) usually for five years to make sure all the numbers and values remain within normal limits. In my case the numbers are so low, they don't register on the machine which analyzes them. Just as a refresher, PSA stands for "Prostate Specific Antigen". That's the test used to determine prostate function, and therefore, possibly cancer. To keep things simple, here are the numbers for us guys (all figures usually reported as nanograms of PSA per milliliter of blood):

  • 0 - 2.5: Normal for a man 40 - 50 yrs.
  • 2.5 - 3.5: Normal for a man 50 - 60 yrs.
  • 3.5 - 4.5: Normal for a man 60 - 70 yrs,
  • 4.5 - 5.5: Normal for a man 70 - 80 yrs. 
In my case, (adenocarcinoma of prostate) before my procedure my PSA was 5.480, which was considered "abnormally high".

Following my surgical procedure, my PSA dropped to below zero, where it remains now. so, for all intents and purposes, I'm cured,  or "in remission", as it were.

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I wanted to make sure I kept you "in the loop" about the prostate cancer, because it's important to me to keep those who love and/or care about me informed.

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"Say 'Hello' To My Leetle Frien' "😎


Its official name is "Schwannoma"  and it sits just over my right ear and is made up of, a bundle of peripheral nerve cells and part of the autonomic nervous system. We're watching it as it grows, and right now it remains benign. It does, however affect my hearing resulting in me having to wear a hearing aid in that ear canal.

A Schwannoma formed when Schwann cells, a type of cell in the nervous system, grows and divides more than normal. So when they first found this little bugger, it had caused a 60% loss of hearing.

As of today, add one more silly millimeter to my little friend's circumference, so now we're at 6 mm, and no one's worried yet, not even Dr. Alfred E. Neuman. I guess when that thing pops out of my ear, we'll worry about it. Kidding, and I'm not as cynical as I am making myself sound. It's just that these days, nothing surprises me anymore. I think as long as I can smile (and I am smiling now), that will take the place of "What, me worry?" I think I found just the song to take us out of this latest journal entry. Thanks for reading!

Bill






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