May 19, 2006

David earns a summer hall pass!!!

We just left the Oncologist (We really like her, hope you don’t get tired of me bragging about my doctor’s but we are VERY lucky), anyway, back to the story at hand……it went awesome!!!

We went over the tests from last week:

- My testosterone is down to 12 (normal is over 240ish). This means the Lupron alone is working but somehow those little cancer cells continue to push my PSA up.

- The bone scan showed my back, neck and shoulders remain clear. The areas in my right rib cage showed additional improvement from December, while the areas in my hips remain constant (“unremarkable” is the term the radiologist uses, kind of a cold term to use, don’t you think?!)

- The CT scan showed no lymph node activity. There had been a small abnormality they noticed on my liver back in December. The doctor was not concerned and it was clear on these tests. She believes it was just a blood vessel - not cancer related.

- We agreed that the next thing to do is to try the Casodex again and attempt to continue manage the cancer with the Hormone Deprivation Therapy. Our goal is to get the PSA number to head back down to 1 or less from the current 11.37.

The best news is that Dr. S. said that I should wait 60-90 days before I have a PSA test again!!! So I’m free until August!! We will schedule my next PSA blood test for mid-August and then have a follow up appointment with the Dr.

The one thing the readers of my Blog can count on…..not so many updates in the next 90 days. I am going to do my best to think about ANYTHING but Prostate Cancer!!

I’m off to play golf now, and then disc golf in the morning. I am looking forward to a visit from my younger brother from St. Louis over the weekend and a “surprise” from Mary on Saturday!

Have a great week-end and remember:
When the world says, "Give up," Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so excited!

And brother dave, just a couple bits:

a. Milestones was an excellent choice.
b. Thank you.
c. Sorry about the emotional message.
d. What i meant to say was: When i need stength i think of you, mary and brother 996.
e. Thank you.
f. I remain, your servant...

ok mary?

Karen said...

WOOOOOOOOOOO! Schooooool's out for summah!!! :)

Karen

Anonymous said...

David,

I pray you find imense peace the next 90 days. I pray that you enjoy 90 days of pure life, pure love and pure family. I pray that any thoughts that might bring you down stay at bay or are at best minimal. God is in you. He is standing with you. He is next to you and He surrounds you. Thanks for sharing the good news and we all will continue to pray for you and yours.

Anonymous said...

Yay, David! Thanks for sharing the good news.

A friend told me recently about a concept called "Kiss the joy." Hard to explain, but mostly it means that you look at the happiness, joy, love, gift of life that today is and you embrace it. Enjoy it. Relish it. When Bradley hugs you, kiss the joy. When you're frisbee golfing, kiss the joy. When you and Mary are celebrating your 25th anniversary, kiss the joy.

Kiss. The. Joy.