Radiation Begins Feb. 11th

 Since meeting Joe Lupton, February 11th has had a special meeting - his birthday.  Of course, his death did not make that date seem any less important but has been an even more special day as all that loved him continue to have a day to celebrate him.   This year, 2/11/2021, has tripled in it's importance.   This year, Steve will get his 2nd COVID-19 vaccination on February 11th.  This year, I will start my six (6) weeks of radiation on February 11th.   

Hopefully for years to come, I will celebrate February 11th as the day that Joe Lupton was born, the day that Steve was safer from the virus, and the day that I hopefully began my cancer recurrence cure.

Fingers crossed.  Prayers being said.

Happy Holidays

There are so many things that I would like to openly write about on here and then there are so many things that I probably should have kept to myself and I wrote waaaayyyy to openly about in the past.

So in an effort to be transparent about the things I should write about and mum about the things I shouldn't, here goes.  There have been biopsies, CT scans, ultrasounds, a prostatic MRI, a complete body bone scan, multiple DRE's, and more blood tests than I can remember over the last few months. I have had PSA tests run with different labs, each with "unique" results.  I have been examined by I think 6 different doctors.  Bottom line, my numbers are good right now and I am foregoing active treatment for the time being.  I already have several follow up doctor appointments for more blood tests & DRE's in the coming months.  Should any test result show a shift, we are ready to pull the trigger on radiation.  I've been given all the information my meager little brain can absorb and at the point in time, when radiation is necessary, I will most likely go with the brachytherapy option instead of the EBRT.  I feel good about the decision and at the very least, during the holiday season (yes, I said HOLIDAY and I'm NOT waging a war on Christmas), I can just try to relax and enjoy without trips back and forth to the Duke Cancer Center.

Though some may think I'm being fool hardy and should just go ahead and have the surgery (yes, I've heard that from more than one person...some people seem more than ready to tell me I'm wrong), I'm just not ready at this point to alter my anatomy and accept the repercussions.  If it becomes absolutely warranted, then of course I would.  But right now, it is not warranted.

But here we are just before Thanksgiving and just around the corner is Christmas.  This year I am going to take a few days vacation just before Christmas like I did in days of old.  This year it will be a return trip to Williamsburg.  I'm sure I'll come back with plenty of pictures of doors.  (If anyone has ever been, the doors and more specifically the wreaths on the doors at Christmas traditionally have been quite beautiful)  But door photos are not the reason for the trip.  The reason, I need a BREAK!

Unless something really unexpected or maybe something wonderful happens, I will probably forego any posts until such time as there is real news.  So, if you don't see anything on here, don't worry, that is a good sign that things are going well....or I can post photos of doors??????

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and Advent season.  Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.

Times up...and then I wait for 2 more weeks.

It seems like the last few months I am doing nothing but hurrying up and waiting.  I saw Dr. Zhang again today at the Duke Cancer Center to get the results of the MRI to see where we stand on the prostate cancer.  Good news is that there is no evidence of any tumor(s) other than the area that we were already aware of.  We did the MRI because there was a discrepancy between the physical exam and the biopsy results.  Bottom line, the biopsy results were accurate.  No surprise there.   YAY.

On the flip side, the MRI did show a lesion on the L5 vertebrae...oh boy.  So, in 2 weeks I have a bone scan on my back followed by another visit with Dr. Zhang.  Unless something really weird happens, at that visit we will make plans as to where we go from here.  It's mostly dependent on what the bone scan shows.  If there is cancer there, that will change everything.  No cancer there, then my decision for now will most likely be what type of radiation (EBRT vs Brachytherapy) to proceed with for the prostate.

The journey continues but I'm not alone in it so that helps tremendously.  Thank you to everyone for your prayers and words of support.  They are invaluable.

... and the answer is....

Yeppers.....it's positive, prostate cancer, Prostatic adenocarcinoma.  However, it appears to be early.  There are several "ratings" of the veracity of my cancer and so here they are:

Gleason grade: 6 (3+3)  That puts me at the "low risk" side of the scale.
TNM staging system: B1
Prostate Cancer Stage Groupings: T2, N0 M0, G2
Stage: II

Options:
Watchful Waiting- Monitored with periodic (3 mos) PSA & DRE, X-rays
Active Surveillance-Periodic PSA, DRE's but definitive therapy is instituted when pre-defined changes occur.
Surgery- Radical Prostatectomy (3 methods of same surgery: Retropubic, perineal or laparoscopic)
Brachytherapy (Interstitial seed placement) - percutaneous placement of radioactive seeds in the prostate
Cryotherapy- Liquid nitrogen or argon gas administered through probes in prostate
HIFU- High intensity focused ultrasound
Radiation therapy - usually used as a palliative treatment for pain caused by bone metastases.

The only "real" options to consider right now however are watchful waiting, active surveillance, surgery, or radiation.

And I have to make this decision.  We all know how good I am at making bad decisions!!!!
So those are the facts folks.

Weekend Update: Here's to a better first of the week!

Joe has had a good rest of the week and weekend so far.  He has however, maybe, possibly, only time will tell, learned that over-eating at one meal is not a good thing for him.  Seems the whole doctor's orders of snacking in between meals has been a hard prescription for him to follow.  Several times over the last week he has ended up with stomach pains following, guess what.....over eating large meals at one sitting.  Yesterday after dinner he was complaining once again about his stomach hurting and confessed that he had gone through a half a bag of potato chips prior to dinner, had eaten half the chips off of my plate before I came downstairs and finished off the rest of the bag with his meal.  Oh, and did I mention the 2 slices of cheesecake?..Didn't think so.  So Friday night he spent laying on the sofa with a stomach ache.  I spent that same time period mowing the grass, which brings me to my 2 problems.  Foot pain and allergies.  Friday's mowing was not without it's own comic moment when I lifted the splash guard from the side gutter to mow around it and discovered the not so small snake curled underneath.  The only thing I had to combat said snake with was the splash guard which I immediately started slamming down on top of the snake, over and over and over. Once the snake seemed to be stunned enough, I rushed (only as fast as the limp would allow) to the garage for the shovel and returned to hack it in to very small pieces.  I even had neighbors stop to witness the execution.  I have made it through this spring relatively unscathed in the allergies department but the last 2 days have been terrible.  I have taken so much allergy and sinus meds that I can almost fall asleep standing up.  Not that I've been standing all that much,...flat of my back with a tissue up my nose has been the pose of the day.

That is not to say that today has been a complete bust.  In between sneezes we managed to go shopping for new suits for each of us. We have the wedding of a very dear friend coming up early next month and needed to have some appropriate attire.  Joe's old suit doesn't fit any longer due to his weight loss and my old suit doesn't fit any longer due to my ever increasing waistline. But we will look very dashing come June 11 for Ms. Di's wedding!

Joe will start back his 3 week regiment of chemo at Duke on Monday morning.  I'm probably more nervous about it than Joe is because it will be the first one where i'm not going with him.  Guess it's the control freak in me but i'm sure I will be a nervous wreak until he calls me when he get's home on Monday.  I'm giving him this one week reprieve of my excellent company, but the following week it will be the 2 of us once again.  Joe is looking forward also to wearing his new jeans and shorts that we got today that actually fit!  No more super baggy!  Can I get an Amen?

Tomorrow will be an early morning at church so hopefully we will get to bed early tonight.  I'm sure it won't take me long to fall asleep as I plan on dosing up on allergy meds again.

Oops....Joe forgot to mention something yesterday

Joe was so pre-occupied with having to get the IV of fluids yesterday and leaving his cell phone in the car that he forgot to post the most important news from his trip to Duke on Friday.  The resident in radiation and Dr. Zafar's nurse, Minoka, both confirmed that the ultrasound from Thursday showed no problems with the stint so it is believed that the rise in his bilirubin count was most probably a reaction to the chemo.  Now that his chemo & radiation treatments are over, hopefully the count will start to come back down.  However, this morning (Saturday) has not started off well.  He has already had some severe nausea and vomiting issues, again.  We are getting ready for the funeral of a dear friend, so Joe is a little anxious.  Hopefully that is all it is.  On a lighter note, during his shower this morning, since his radiation is over he was able to scrub the areas on his torso where the radiologists had drawn marks for his treatments for the first time since the first week of December.  He is extremely clean today.

T-Minus 2 days until the end of Chemo/Radiation

Tomorrow will be the next to last day of chemo & radiation for Joe.  After his 7:30am radiation treatment we go up 2 floors to the Oncology clinic for blood work and then an appointment with the Oncologist.  Joe has to fast tomorrow morning before they draw blood so they can get a more accurate reading of his glucose level.  Needless to say, the sweets over the holidays have pushed his blood sugar level up a little too high so they want to make sure there isn't anything else going on and thus the fasting.  I guess that means that breakfast will be in the Oncology clinic ASAP after his blood is taken.  It's all a ripple down effect....can't take his chemo until after he eats and he has to take his chemo 12 hours apart.....he can't eat too late at night because it gives him acid reflux when he goes to bed....therefore, he needs to eat breakfast before 8:30 am if at all possible so he can eat and get his evening pills in before 8:30pm.  It's all about schedules these days!  The last couple of days have not been the best for Joe.  He has had severe bouts of nausea and an unsettled stomach along with chills and a slight fever off and on.  Hopefully after the chemo & radiation are over, he will get back to feeling a little more normal on a regular basis.