I left a cancerous prostate on an operating room floor four years ago. That was followed up with nine weeks, five sessions a week, of radiation. After that I recovered well, with only minor annoyances as a reminder, and a return to the doc every three months for PSA tests -- the results of all of which to the present were, as hoped, "undetectable".
Well, this past spring it came back, only this time as an aggressive small-cell variety that doesn't announce itself on a PSA test. By the time I got to the cancer clinic in July it was pretty far along. They told me that the good news, though, is that this small-cell stuff responds well to chemo and radiation treatments, and so far that's the way it's working out. The most recent CT scan showed all tumors greatly reduced in size or resolved altogether -- "dramatic improvement" are the verbatim words used in the report. I feel really good now - zero pain, no pain meds for the past month and a half.
Round #6 of chemo started yesterday (three days each round, three weeks between rounds). That hasn't been too bad, just fatigue for the first couple of days after each round; thankfully no nausea/vomiting or other unpleasant side effects. I am sporting a Yul Brynner hairstyle these days, though. (They say you never know what you'll get when post-chemo hair starts coming back. Mine seems to coming back in a Christopher-Lloyd-Back-to-The-Future sort of way.)
Because of a tumor in the bone I also had a painful pathological fracture of the right humerus, just below the shoulder. That needed surgery in late September to put in an IM rod. The surgeon did a great job, and the arm feels good as new. Last Friday was the last radiation treatment on the arm, just in case the surgery stirred anything up in there.
Yeah, it sucks real bad. But it has also given me a new perspective on and empathy for the many, many patients I've met who have had things a lot worse than I have. I'm grateful for the amazing, caring physicians and staff at City of Hope, as well as the assistance and support of family and friends. Too many blessings to list.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
