December 24th
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa.
Best wishes for a walk on the path to good health in the
coming year.
Image from Flickr Creative Commons
An account of one man's encounter with prostate cancer
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Happy Holidays
Entry 59
December 24th
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa.
Best wishes for a walk on the path to good health in the
coming year.
December 24th
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa.
Best wishes for a walk on the path to good health in the
coming year.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
MR Guided Ultrasound Surgery
Entry 58
December 8, 2011
The TED Talks series is my favorite video podcast set. Here's a recent one about a treatment that may have implications for those with prostate and other types of cancer in the future.
Contact: hdstimson @ shaw.ca
December 8, 2011
The TED Talks series is my favorite video podcast set. Here's a recent one about a treatment that may have implications for those with prostate and other types of cancer in the future.
Contact: hdstimson @ shaw.ca
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Anniversary of Surgery
Entry 57
December 6, 2011
My prostatectomy was on December 9, 2010. One year has passed quickly. What a day that was.
Here it is... time to celebrate Christmas in 2011. Today we enjoyed the Festival of Trees in the grand halls of Manitoba Hydro.
December 6, 2011
My prostatectomy was on December 9, 2010. One year has passed quickly. What a day that was.
Here it is... time to celebrate Christmas in 2011. Today we enjoyed the Festival of Trees in the grand halls of Manitoba Hydro.
Jets Tree - Click to enlarge the image
I had my injection of Zoladex on November 29. I now begin what they call 'Intermittent Hormone Therapy' which means your medical team takes you off the hormone therapy regimen and puts you on a "drug holiday". Given that the prostate cancer escaped into my lymph nodes, they will measure the PSA number every 3 months in order to observe how quickly it begins to climb - in my case from the 0.01ng/ml baseline in November 2011. The speed with which it comes back, and then doubles, determines the aggressiveness. My doctor and his primary care nurse expect me to be on this drug holiday for 9 months to a year, at which time they will put me back on the hormone therapy again. They plan to keep doing this until the PC figures a way around the treatment, and if history is any indication, it will. Hopefully some bright group of researchers will come up with another treatment that will be additive to the hormone therapy.
My timeline
My timeline
I seem to be affected by only a few side effects of the hormone therapy; tiredness and loss of strength which I combat with the weight machines and free weights at the Reh-fit, hot flashes I have under control with a medication, weight gain ( I've held it at bay, but it's really tough to make inroads here), and the one I was particularly worried about, heart disease. I'm not so worried about this now but I will have to keep an eye the blood pressure.
Contact: hdstimson @ shaw.ca
Contact: hdstimson @ shaw.ca
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