Yahoo!!!! Our home has a PSA of 0.3! Down from 0.4 six months ago! We are winning this battle!
Okay, for those of you that are not familiar with this ongoing full out and out wage against this villain that is trying to rob the very life out of my husband, and the soul out of his being...allow me to break this down for you. He has prostate cancer.
He was diagnosed with it September 23, 2004, and we have been at war with this disease every since, a war that we will not lose.
It came as a total surprise to us both, as he had absolutely no symptoms at all, and it was discovered because of a simple routine blood test that was drawn when he had gone to see the doctor because he was having some allergy problems and a constant runny nose. (Think about it people...not exactly the same areas, okay?)
The doctor called him and informed him that because of a PSA test that had been done as part of his overall annual physical (that I'd convinced the doctor to do once I got him in there for the allergy problem, yeah, okay, it was a rotten thing to do, I tricked him) he needed to follow up with another kind of doctor, a urologist, to rule out the possibility of prostate cancer vs. some type of infection. His PSA was "10". A normal one, we were told was 0-4. PSA I called in a favor and got him in to see the urologist the next day.
In the meantime, I called the American Cancer Society to find out the possibilities of getting false readings on PSAs or what other reasons one could be high, and I called a friend that worked in oncology. Things didn't look too promising for a PSA as high as 10.
Let me just take a moment here to explain a little about PSA to those that might not want to click on the links that explain a lot better than I can. PSA is an enzyme that is found in seminal fluid and blood in men and when it is found above 4 nanograms per milliliter of blood, it means you at least have a major infection of some type, and probability factor for prostate cancer increases with the higher the number goes. Either way, you need to see your doctor and get something done for whatever the problem is, before it gets worse.
The urologist did a second PSA test, just to double check things, and to make sure that his first one hadn't been a mix up at the lab. You know, it's wierd..you ever WISH for someone to have screwed up your labwork? Strange, huh? No such luck.
The second one came back with a result of 11.25. We were dumb founded. We sat in that little room, holding each other's hands, barely able to get a breath of air in our lungs and then I noticed my husband's knees and legs begin to quiver. That is when I knew I was going to have to get it together and be strong. For both of us. I mustered up the air to get the voice to ask, "Okay, what's next?"
"Well, we need to do a biopsy." That just didn't sound too pleasant. It was done in the office, after giving him an IV to make him very, VERY happy. That part was actually pretty fun. For him and me both, and for the entire staff that he sang, "Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day..." to. I think if I were ever going to be a junky...Versed will be the drug I am going to choose.
I got to stay by his side, while the doctor and his assistant took 10 samples with a very large needle to send off to have evaluated. Now we had to wait for several days for the pathology. My husband told the doctor that he didn't want to come in for the results...he wanted to sign whatever waiver he needed to in order to approve the HIPPA requirements to give him permission to give me the news when it came back, because he simply didn't want to hear it from him, he'd rather hear it from me. G-r-e-a-t
Almost a week later, I got off work, walked over from the hospital to the doctor's office and waited until we could get the word. I was called into the room, and waited for the doctor. We already knew it would be cancer. We'd spent almost a week talking about how we would treat it. Would we opt for surgical removal of the prostate? Would it be followed up by chemo? Radiation? Both? Either way, after the surgery removed it...at least it would be out and we wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. I couldn't have been more wrong.
The doctor came in and said. "Well, it's bad news. All 10 of the samples came back malignant. His Gleason score is 7 and so it has metastasized. We need to get him over to see the radiation/oncologist as soon as possible and I am going to start him on some oral medication today, which he will need to take for 2 weeks first, and then the radiation doctor will take it from there and set up the radiation treatments. He will need hormone therapy shots for at least 2 years, which will leave him impotent during that time, and I can't tell you if that will return to normal when they stop or not. I can't even tell you if he will be able to stop the shots at the end of two years or not, we will have to keep monitoring his PSA levels to judge that." Honestly...he lost me after the word metastasized left his mouth...
It was like a Charlie Brown cartoon where the parents are talking because I never heard the rest of that. I had to get him to repeat it again. I told him we wanted it cut out. He said it was too late. He wanted to do a bone scan, to see where it might have gone to. I was in a nightmare. How was I going to tell my husband this?!! How was I going to tell him that surgery was too late? How was I going to tell him that it was no longer just in the prostate and had already spread when he had not even had a symptom?!
I walked out of that little room. Managed to pay by check. Well, I signed it, and the lady at the window made it out for me. I made it to the elevators and got to the parking garage, then made it to my truck where I lost it. I completely lost it. I had no idea how to even begin to tell him. I was so scared and I knew I couldn't tell him or show him that. I was prepared for cancer. I was prepared for surgery and for the results that would follow, but I was not prepared for the fact that it had spread and that the doctor was telling me that it was too late to do surgery or that chemo wouldn't work.
I had lost my father to cancer. I'd seen it pull his 6'2" frame down to 64lbs. I had lost cousins, aunts, and a grandfather to cancer. It was just too much. This man was too good, and that always seems to be the ones that something bad happens to, so that scared me even more. My mind was racing at lightening speeds and all in fear and panic. I also knew I couldn't take too long getting myself together because my husband knew what time I got off work and that I was going to the doctor's to get the report, so he'd be expecting the information, and soon, and I certainly didn't want to tell him over the cellphone...no, this would have to be face to face.
Somehow, I managed to fix my makeup, and put drops in my eyes before I got to him. Telling him was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, but we knew we'd get through it. We held each other, cried a bit, but then just got focused.
We got the bone scan the next day. (Another favor called in) and it was negative. No cancer showed up anywhere! Yahoo!
I still couldn't understand the Gleason scoring Gleason Scoring so I bought a book, "Idiots Guide for Prostate Cancer". It and the internet helped a bunch.
It felt so agonizing at the beginning when we had to wait for anything to do, because we were still waiting for the oral medication to shrink the "target". I got busy doing research and planning battle strategies. He stayed busy with a God-send of a Playstation II. ANYTHING to keep the mind busy is a blessing at times like that. Denial? Maybe. But you have to shut your mind off, and it's the only way to do it.
We met with the third doctor, the radiologist/oncologist, who I think my husband liked the best, and they made a mold of his legs and backside for him to lay on every time he went for his radiation treatments (41 in total). The doctor had explained that they were going to do radiation to not only his prostate but to his entire abdomen and lymph nodes because of his Gleason score and the risks of microscopic metastasis. They felt confident that radiation was the best method of killing all the cancer cells off. The radiation treatments would not cause him to lose his hair, and would probably cause him some GI disturbances because of the location of the treatments and because as the doctor put it, "we are giving you an internal sunburn of the inth degree". Swell.
My husband got on fantastically with everyone in the radiation department there at the hospital, and I found myself envious of how well the department all seemed to work together, yet I was thrilled to see them working so well with my husband. They brought in a nutritionist when he began to lose weight and she managed to help get it back on him. He forced himself to eat, even when he had no appetite, or was spending every 5 minutes in the restroom...ALL day and ALL night.
He went in for his radiation treatments in the mornings and the guys at the EMS station stayed over late from working nights or either came in for him to help cover for him while he got his treatments, so he never missed a day. They were our angels. They were again during Hurricane Katrina. I love those guys!!
The hormone treatments were and remain not so fun. Nothing quite like getting a turkey basting needle inserted just under your skin near your navel to insert something the size of a grain of rice. Of course, that's the easy part. The real fun is the part where the thermo-regulation is totally screwed up. I'll give you an example.
He just got another shot last Thursday. I came in from work on Saturday night and found him in sweatpants, sweatshirt, sweat jacket and hood on, a blanket wrapped around him, and another one over him, sitting under the heater vent, and the heater was up so high that the dog was panting. I stripped down to a pair of shorts and a spaghetti strap shirt, fixed him some soup and as many warm things as I could think of. He didn't have much appetite, but he tried. That was Saturday.
On Sunday, he stayed home because he was freezing, and then finally, at one point that night, he was burning up and finally had a hot flash like a menopausal woman. He will ride this rollarcoaster for a while now, and then have the gambit of emotions to go with it. You just can't cram female hormones into a formally testosterone loaded body and not expect something to give. It's hell on him.
BUT!!!!!! WE HAVE A 0.3 PSA!!!!! And it is worth it, because it is getting better!
With continued success, he will only have to take these shots until this September or October. That is only 6 more months away. We are winning this war!
I can't believe how lucky we are. What if he hadn't caught a cold and hadn't had allergies? Would I have been able to pester him into going to the doctor? If I hadn't told the doctor to go ahead and run a full cholesterol, triglyceride, PSA, liver function, kidney function, etc on him and anything else he could think of to do while he had him in there...how much damage would this disease have done to him and how far would it have spread before we would have even started fighting it? As it is...it looks like any metastasis he may have were microscopic and hopefully, caught before they got too far from the prostate.
As I have mentioned before, most of my friends are male, and I love them dearly...therefore, I pray, plead, and implore to each of you...please go get a simple blood test done...the PSA.
Maybe I can explain this as the Irish see it....
"What you should know about a Faulty Fuel Injector...
A man thing...
The prostate is a walnut sized gland that sits just under the bladder. Its job is to produce the bulk of semen to help protect and nourish sperm on their hazardous trip to the womb.
The risk of a man getting prostate cancer is only 2% less than the risk of a woman getting breast cancer.
Nobody knows what causes prostate cancer, there are some recognized risk factors:
Birthdays: Risk increases over the age of 50 years. Prostate cancer is rare in younger men. Either buy less candles for the cake or better still, eat the candles and leave the cake as a high fat diet may also be a risk factor.
Family History: If your father or brother had prostate cancer, your risk increases. If they had it at a young age, your risk is even higher.
‘Western diet’: High fat, lots of red meat. Countries with low fat and low meat diets
have low levels of prostate cancer.
Obesity: Being overweight is a major risk factor for all cancers.
Happy Birthday
As men get older, their urine flow can become slower and the bladder needs to be emptied more often. This is usually due to the prostate gland getting bigger and putting pressure on the bladder. If you need to pee more often, it does not mean that you have prostate cancer. But it is important to see the doctor and rule it out. With early discovery, prostate cancer can be treated very successfully.
Watch out for:
difficulty peeing with any kind of pressure;
peeing more often than usual;
getting up at night to have a pee only to get up again later on;
a feeling that you haven’t quite got rid of it all when you pee;
stop-start-peeing;
discomfort or burning when peeing;
blood in your pee or semen.
Prostate cancer is not caused by vasectomy, injury, masturbation or reading the Karma Sutra under the bedclothes with a flashlight. Just as well, or teenagers would be suffering along with men predominantly aged over 50.
You may be able to reduce your risk by having a balanced diet with fresh fruit and vegetables. Tomatoes and tomato-based products reportedly can reduce your risk, so the occasional Bloody Mary may also be helpful, but preferably with less Mary!"
I always did know the Irish had a way of putting things.
Please...take care of yourselves... and celebrate, WE HAVE A 0.3 PSA!!!!
Posted by irishchannelrn
at 12:01 AM EST
Updated: Wednesday, 8 February 2006 10:11 AM EST
