Rang the bell last Wednesday! Finished 44 radiation treatments.Last spring right after I started doing security at a private school,I had a bad psa test.I made it to the end of the semester.My urologist wasn’t taking it seriously enough.Finally got more testing.On june 5 he called me and told me I had prostrate cancer.
He told me done worry about it and we will check again in a couple of months. Instead I contacted Vanderbilt Ingram cancer center.I arranged copies of my tests to be sent to Vanderbilt.They called me and said that my cancer looked aggressive.After more testing and interviews with several doctors we decided on radiation.Five days a week for almost 9 weeks.The urinary and bowel side effects are interesting to say the least.Hopefully they will decrease or go away soon.
Over the next 6 weeks I have to do my Constable inservice and shoot a leosa qualification.And I also need to take a trip to Texas to see my son.And I want to go to the Texas Ranger museum on their 200 anniversary.
I don’t know yet if the cancer is gone.But what I am saying is don’t hesitate to get a second opinion if you are not sure of the first.
I went through my course of radiation in January and February this year. Mine was 5 weeks. I had complained three different times that I didn't feel right and could not pee properly under the Canadian Medical system and was told I was fine. The famous "finger exam" showed nothing wrong. A PSA test was never suggested and I did not know that I should have insisted. My bad.
Get a PSA test if you are in any doubt. On a subsequent trip to Mexico -- a country I have still to this day spent most of my adult life living and working in -- I stopped to complain to my old Doctor down there. My first PSA test was 114. He was shocked. He gave me some drugs and a test two days later was 78. He scheduled a biopsy which took place five days later. I spent the night of the biopsy in Queretero Star Medica hospital and was told I had prostate cancer. They started me on the treatments of hormone blockers and suggested I get back to Canada and get the radiation treatment.
Coming back to Canada armed with all the studies that the Mexicans took on me, I was fast-tracked into the Kelowna Cancer Center. Along the way, I had to endure a session with a Canadian Urologist who was not too interested in my case and seemed very aloof and suggested I had "leaped over the system". He didn't matter, though, the results were the results and the Cancer Center took me right away and put me through my treatments. If I remember correctly, when I got my first hormone blocker shot (in Mexico, a shot called Eligard) my PSA was 12.5. My PSA taken about 2 months later, when I was back in Canada and dealing with the less than stellar Urologist my PSA was 4. A couple of months with another shot called Lupron and a drug called Bicaludimida in Spanish (Bicaludimide? in English?) and my PSA was at around 1.0. Then came the radiation, with all the effects you mention. I was also quite tired after the treatments, and for some time afterwards.
Actual hidden camera photo of me taken during one of the treatments.
My PSA level after the treatments was .7. Now, almost nine months later, my latest PSA test was .03. So keep your hopes up.
The effects of the radiation fade, but more slowly than you think. I don't think I notice any now, but up until about six months after the last treatment I could still sometimes feel things going on down there. Who cares? I feel better now than I've felt in years, although the hormone blockers make me tired but I'm supposed to end my time with those in April. So we'll see.
Like you, I don't know if they got it all. But I feel great. And I'm in the system now, and the Cancer Center Oncologist keeps tabs on me with quarterly PSA tests. So all is good. I would say that you, too, should expect good things.
No man wants to think about Prostate Cancer. But I would suggest that every man above the age of 50 get a yearly check-up that includes a Prostate PSA exam. It's much easier on you if you catch it early. I caught it late, and yet so far things seem to be just fine.
And yes, Lee, Colonel Roettinger's NRM .357 is in a safe place awaiting my more permanent return to Mexico. I did not photograph it this year, but you can rest assured it's just fine. It was me that wasn't "just fine" for a bit and I had to take care of that. It's all good now.
And I double-down on shell627's comment to seek a second opinion if you don't trust the first one. In Canada, under our failing Medical System, a second opinion is pretty much off the table. But get one however you have to do it, because it can save you.
In the Cancer Center, during my weeks there, I saw a lot of people a lot worse off than I was. I saw young people in their early 20's with no hair -- the result of Chemo and head tumor treatments -- just trying to make it to their mid-20's. It humbles you.
You did everyone a service by posting about your experience, shell627. My hat's off to you, sir.
