Prostate Cancer

I am looking for a way to update family and friends about my prostate cancer. I decided to use our family blog. If you decide you don’t want to get these messages, just enter your email address in the “Subscribe Here” box in the right sidebar and click “Unsubscribe”. I am placing a subscribe box at the end of this message so you can use that one if you wish.

First a little background on my prostate cancer. It has been about 10 years since I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I had retired from GM but we were still living in Indiana. We did some searching for a retirement location and picked Beaufort, SC. We were in the process of building our home in Beaufort and moving when the cancer was found. I did not want to be disabled by surgery while all that was going on so I picked external beam radiation. After 42 trips to the linear accelerator at Hilton Head Hospital my PSA went down to 0.2, a very low reading. That was in 2001 and it stayed low until last year when it started rising at an ever increasing rate. The latest reading is 20.

I was being treated by a urologist but I decided to add a oncologist to the team. Dr. Chahin at the Keyserling Cancer Center has been agressive in his approach. First I had a bone scan which came back negative and he thought I might not need chemotherapy but he also ordered MRIs which show cancer in my back and hip. I had surgery to install a “power port” under the skin on my chest. This makes it easier to give the chemo and draw blood samples. I will not need the usual IV in my wrist.

This week I had my first Zometa treatment for the bones and my first chemo treatment. So far I am doing fine.

On Friday afternoon I met Dr. McNab the radiation oncologist at the cancer center. After learning that my pain had almost disappeared completely he said I was not yet a candidate for radiation. When and if the pain get so severe that drugs don’t help, that’s the time for radiation. He seems to be a very skilled doctor with 30 years of radiation experience. I am very impressed with the cancer center we have in Beaufort.