OT: Prostate Cancer

[bdunn13]

Sharing the information couldn't have been easy. So I know you have the guts to fight it. My family's thoughts and prayers will be with you.

Brad

[bulls23]

Thank you for taking your valuable time and sharing your experiences about getting screened. I will keep it in mind and you in thoughts for the best.

[GameSeven]

I followed the information you shared in the other thread, but reserved comment in deference to the other excellent posters who shared their wishes as well as I could hope to.

But thanks for the additional information you've shared and know that you've got a family here that cares and will be pulling for you every step of the way. Stay strong and be well, Divot...

[Jimmydeicide]

What a brave and insightful post Divot. Thank you.

My thoughts are with you during this time. WHEN you beat this thing we should celebrate with a real-life DSP golf tourney at the course of your choice!!!

-Victor

This would be awesome.

[J_Cauthen]

Tim, thanks for sharing your story with us... this stuff is beatable and you're on your way to doing so, especially with the attitude and approach you're taking. Could I recommend that you get yourself a juicer and make and drink as much organic, freshly juiced carrot juice as you can? I also recommend that you avoid as much refined sugar in your food and drinks as you can while this is being treated. I know a woman who was given months with stage 4 cancer, and 13 years later, she's still around an as healthy as ever and all she did was knock off refined sugar and drank as much fresh carrot juice as she could stand... she was buying 35 to 45 pounds of carrots a week!

I also recommend a mineral and antioxidant mix called Ruby Reds to give your body additional supplements needed to fight this. I've been drinking it since 2010, once a day and its not only noted for its effects in helping prevent and fight cancer, it helps me with joint health and just my overall energy level.

Prayers go out to you Tim... keep the Faith and tackle this with confidence - YOU WILL beat it and be stronger for it!

[Brando70]

Divot, I'm so sorry to hear the news, but thank you for turning it into something that can help all of us aging nerds.

You've got the strong spirit, which is crucial to fighting this, and I have to think if you made it through playing on the Saints, you will definite beat this!

[JackB1]

Hey Divot...so sorry to hear about this, but your courage and bravery is truly inspiring. It sounds like you are commited to doing whatever you can to fight this thing.
Being over 50 myself, you just never know when/if something like this is going to strike. I know it can be very scary to deal with cancer, but it sounds like you are getting
some top notch medical care and that certainly helps the odds more in your favor.

Good luck and keep us posted. All of us here will keep you in our thoughts.

[DivotMaker]

Tim, thanks for sharing your story with us... this stuff is beatable and you're on your way to doing so, especially with the attitude and approach you're taking. Could I recommend that you get yourself a juicer and make and drink as much organic, freshly juiced carrot juice as you can? I also recommend that you avoid as much refined sugar in your food and drinks as you can while this is being treated. I know a woman who was given months with stage 4 cancer, and 13 years later, she's still around an as healthy as ever and all she did was knock off refined sugar and drank as much fresh carrot juice as she could stand... she was buying 35 to 45 pounds of carrots a week!

I also recommend a mineral and antioxidant mix called Ruby Reds to give your body additional supplements needed to fight this. I've been drinking it since 2010, once a day and its not only noted for its effects in helping prevent and fight cancer, it helps me with joint health and just my overall energy level.

Prayers go out to you Tim... keep the Faith and tackle this with confidence - YOU WILL beat it and be stronger for it!

Thanks John....appreciate the advice. I am already eating 3-4 servings of fruit daily and drink between 80-100 ounces of water daily. Very few carbs and mostly protein. I gave up all refined sugars, softdrinks, etc back in November last year when I started my diet/lifestyle change process. After 141 days, I ended up dropping from 313 to 219 and feel great This is the 4th or 5th time I have lost a significant amount of weight. The key this time though is maintenance and keeping the weight off which I have been doing a good job of since May when I reached my goal weight. I am currently at 230 give or take 2-3 pounds depending on the day and that is one of the side effects (weight gain) of the injections I have taken for the prostate. However, to work my weight back down to 220, I am stepping up my intake of fruits and veggies as well as my exercise regimen even though I am supposed to be tired more with these injections. I will give the carrot juice a go as well as the Ruby Reds. Thank you for sharing the inspiring story of the lady with Stage 4 and still going strong 13 years later!

Seeing my team of physicians on Thursday and it appears I will be asked to be part of a new clinical trial to treat the prostate cancer with new drugs that supplement what I am already on. Surgery and radiation seem to be off the table for now for the prostate and they finally have the pathology report for my back which will open the discussion on how to treat my spine as well. Surgery is pretty awful on the prostate as you can imagein with a number of significant side effects, not limited to lack of erectile performance for several months, a catheter in place for the first 2 weeks after surgery and worrying about leakage while the surgical area heals, among other things. VERY invasive. The Dr. in charge of my treatment (Head of Alternative Treatment/Oncology) is simply brilliant and I can't wait to visit with him again and learn more about what I am facing so I can share it with you all in hopes that some or all of this will help you avoid the kind of scenario I am faced with. And lets be clear about something.....if you are 30 years old or older, start taking this seriously NOW please. Cancer does not discriminate with age. My Dad beat prostate cancer at the age of 77 and he is about to celebrate his 80th birthday in October. He is not my biological father, but he is my father as he adopted me when I was 2 years old right after he married my Mom. He is my hero and every December 20th, he and I share a special phone call where we thank God we have each other as I still remember the day he adopted my and what took place. My Mom is equally special making sure I had everything I needed when it was just she and I fending for ourselves until she married my Dad.......anyway, Everyone one of us has something and/or someone to live for and I will kick the s*** out of cancer, and I will thank each and every one of you for your support and encouragement on the day I get to "ring the bell" at MD Anderson. And I hope this thread lives on to help support others who need support and someone to talk to. Cancer should not be a lonely thing and thank God for my incredible wife, Karen, my children Hayley and Derek, my Family and Friends, my co-workers, and my Family here at DSP. Thank you all again for the support and love......you have touched me in such a way I will never forget and will be forever thankful and grateful!

Tim

[10spro]

A year ago I had a Cystoscopy done due to an unusual amount of red cells in my blood test. It was a painful five minutes test to say the least but I agree that we should all have our annuals done. Pretty sure the majority here are way over 30 with families and eating well and maintaining our weight is crucial in our lives. I got a Vitamix, carrots, celery, beets throw all that good stuff in there with Kale and spinach which makes it a great green energizer.

Good luck on Thursday and thanks for sharing again.

[DivotMaker]

Well, my luck just really sucks right now...I am about to leave Rio de Janeiro tonight after being here a week. Had a great presentation for a core customer and went to celebrate last night. Went to an authentic Brazilian Churrascaria and had a great meal with my co-workers. Get back to the hotel, hit the sack aout 2 hours later. Woke up at midnight having pains in my back and shoulder blades and could not get comfortable laying down. After about 30 minutes of trying to get comfortable, I am having hell breathing and my chest is killing me and I can even feel pain in my neck and jaws. I called International SOS who takes are of emergency medical matters for us when we are overseas. They got me to an ER and paved the way for me getting treatment. I just left the ER after being there 12 hours with no apparent heart attack or damage aftwer 3 EKG's and 3 separate blood tests. No stroke. All enzymes looked good and I even passed a stress test on the treadmill before being released. Thank God I have a Family-like group with my company as they pulled me through this. The real pisser is I missed my tee time today....LOL. Thanking God I am flying home tonight for my meetings with MD Anderson tomorrow and now it appears I will need to find a great cardiologist as well to double check that I did not damage the heart......scared the living s*** out of me and if that was NOT a heart attack, I damn sure don't ever want to get one....when it rains, it pours sometimes.....

Take Care of Yourselves and Don't Take ANYTHING for Granted!

Tim

[dbdynsty25]

My god Tim...get back to the states with the competent doctors!

I feel for ya man...chest pains are no joke. Pair that with the other health issues and damn...hopefully that was just a fluke, freak thing.

[DivotMaker]

Thanks, seems almost unreal.....I have been so healthy for 55 years.....

If I had not been living this, I would swear it was a script right out of a soap opera.....this is the last trip overseas this year......sheesh!

[sportdan30]

Always frightening to be away from home and have something as scary as that. Hopefully it was just anxiety or dare I say it, excessive gas? Hey, gotta mix a little humor in this thread every now and then. Hang in there!

[J_Cauthen]

Tim, that sounds disturbing, but are you sure you weren't having some sort of allergic reaction to something you may have eaten that was out of the ordinary? But yeah, I'd still want the cardiologist to check things out after a bout like that!

[DivotMaker]

Got home this AM no problems. Feeling about 95% back to where I was. I am seeing a cardiologist as soon as I get the lab reports from the clinic in Rio and get them translated from Portuguese to English. I think it was a combination of binge eating of read meats and sausages(haven't done this in over a year), lots of salt in the meats, and it is possible that one of the meats was not "quite right" in terms of safety which might point to a bad case of food poisoning as I have experienced something similar about 9 years ago in West Africa after a bout of food poisoning from a bad pizza. Either way, I am going to get checked ASAP to make sure I do not have something else to deal with.....Sheesh....

[TCrouch]

I've struggled with what to post and what not to post in this thread. But my mom had horrendous pain in her back and shoulder, and then later her hip that sounded almost exactly like what you described. There one moment, gone the next day, back again a week later, etc.

In HER case, it was bone lesions that had formed, making it impossible to get comfortable whether it was sitting or standing, moving around, or anything, really.

[DivotMaker]

Finally some good news....met with the doctors at MD Anderson Thursday afternoon. Seems that my progress with the first treatment injections have worked very well. Since these injections on August 6th, my PSA has dropped from 5.0 to .7. My testosterone has dropped from the level of a 16 year old to ZERO. Good news is that this is worked as expected and I am now on another drug called Lupron which will continue to decrease the PSA and keep the testosterone in check. Evidently testosterone in the presence of cancerous cells in the prostate is like throwing gasoline onto a fire. This has the side effect of making me impotent sexually which is a bit difficult to take since I have never had any sort of issue in that regard.

Another piece of good news is the biopsy revealed that the mass growing on my spine is from the prostate, so this means that my current treatment is effective on this mass and I won't need chemotherapy if the mass had been from the melanoma or a new source. VERY relieved to hear this. Thank you ALL for your kind and encouraging words and your prayers...it is paying off!

Moving forward, my treatment will consist of injections every 90 days of Lupron for the next 6 months. At the end of 6 months, they will run full body scans to see if there are any other masses growing. If not, then surgery and radiation may be off the table for good which is HUGE. Prostate cancer surgery SUCKS and I hope I can beat this without it. Radiation is better, but not without significant side effects as I get older. They are telling me that when I beat this, I can expect 10-20 years more life expectancy and it may get longer than this as treatment and research technology improves.

Lastly, I have to warn everyone here. If you feel you are a candidate for "low-T", please consult your doctor and or a good urologist. I did not and went to the Low-T Center near where I live and today I feel that had I NOT gone there and taken treatment, I very likely would not be facing prostate cancer today. All of the doctors I have spoken with have condemned these low-t programs other than those carefully monitored by doctors. Take my level of T last month...that of a 16 year old. I did not need that level at 56 years of age and the Low-T Center's answer to everything was "more testosterone". Even though I took my last injection in January and exercised daily, I still had WAY TOO MUCH testosterone in my body for my age. Please take heed and let your friends know that testosterone is a key factor in prostate cancer......

Take Care My Friends and Thank You ALL Again for your Supportive Words and Prayers!

[dbdynsty25]

Glad to hear some encouraging news...always lightens these threads up. Keep fighting!

[MizzouRah]

Yes, great to hear some good news!

[XXXIV]

Great news Divot!

Keep kicking its ass!

[J_Cauthen]

Fantastic news Tim! Thanks for sharing all the details, there's a lot we all can learn and put into practice from your experience. I know you've got to feel like you've got a new lease on life!

[DivotMaker]

Fantastic news Tim! Thanks for sharing all the details, there's a lot we all can learn and put into practice from your experience. I know you've got to feel like you've got a new lease on life!

That is really the intent of this thread is to share my experiences with you all. Many of us are close in age and this is the only forum community I felt comfortable posting about this because of the community we have here and my desire to spare as many of you as possible the experience I am going through. Communication and awareness are the keys in prevention and early detection. Not too long ago, many patients who were recently diagnosed as paraplegics actually ended up having advanced prostate cancer. If left undetected, it can actually cripple you by attacking your spine (and other parts of the body) and according the MD Anderson folks, scores of men who became paraplegics had advanced prostate cancer that had spread to their spines as it did mine and left unchecked, caused their spinal columns to collapse. If that does not scare the crap out of you, nothing will.

And yes, I do have a new lease on life not having to look at daily radiation treatments and having the prostate surgically removed for at least 5-6 months and if the current therapies continue to show such progress, I could escape both ultimately which would be HUGE. The only downside is I will be having to monitor this every 3 months for as long as I continue to fog a mirror......I'll take that trade right now!

[Jackdog]

Tim, I wish you the best my friend. You have a Warriors spirit. Thank you for sharing advice and lifestyle changes. Prayers for a full recovery.

[DivotMaker]

All,

I was asked by another forum member how I was feeling in a PM the other day, so I thought I would give you all an update on how things are going with me and what new things I have learned about the prostate and prostate cancer. Thank you for asking.

I am doing very well for the most part. I am as close to being in remission as you can get, however with metastatic prostate cancer, I can't achieve true remission until they come up with a cure due to the prostate cancer also creating a tumor on my T6 vertebra. I took my last hormone treatment (Lupron) on December 18th. For the second check up in a row, my PSA was 0 and testosterone was 0 (OUTSTANDING RESULTS). I went for my 3 month check up in March with the same great results. My oncologist (genius individual) suggested I could go on intermittent treatment to allow the testosterone a chance to start to producing again. Lupron is an androgen deprivation therapy and is commonly used for prostate cancers of all types. The one big downside of androgen deprivation therapy is that it has a huge impact on your testosterone (basically shuts it off) which then impacts your sexual libido and your metabolism. I lost 94 pounds last year to get to 220. Ever since starting the hormone therapy in August I have gained 55 pounds back with little change to diet and exercise. I will be starting a new diet when my wife and I return from our 30th Anniversary trip to Hawaii starting May 30th - June 6th. My goal is to get back down to 240 for my daughter's wedding on October 17th. It will be interesting to see how easy/hard this is with little to no testosterone. If, during this intermittent treatment my PSA starts to escalate quickly, then I will be back on Lupron ASAP. Last month it was testosterone 0, PSA .1. So far, the testosterone is struggling to get going again, so we will see how this works.

The good news is that MD Anderson has an entire department dedicated to post prostate cancer treatment. I am working with these folks and the results are encouraging, but certainly nothing I would wish on any of you. I will spare you all the details, but suffice to say the sex life isn't what it used to be and that is one of the toughest things I have had to deal with. My oncologist did mention we could remove the prostate and I would no longer need hormone therapy, but I am not comfortable with the side effects and the risks with surgery still. I told him I will keep it as long as the risks of surgery are still poor until such time that the decision becomes the prostate, or death. Then they can take the SOB if those are my choices.

One other comment I would like to reiterate....if you think you need testosterone therapy or you have Low-T, go to an oncologist and get a proper screening. Testosterone is the gas that feeds prostate cancer, so please be extra careful with that. I went to a Low-T clinic for 6 months without seeing my doctor and I wish I had seen the doctor first. Most of the Low-T clinics are a scam charging $90-120 for a $5 shot of testosterone. They simply aren't run by oncologists/doctors nor do they have the proper equipment and experience to screen users properly.

Lastly, I am sharing this with all of you so that if you are ever faced with this disease, you will have some knowledge and insight on the subject. I am VERY excited about the latest advances that have been made with immunotherapy at both Duke University, May Clinic and MD Anderson. I hope they have a cure for this disease sooner than later and I am hopeful my experiences can help someone else afflicted with this as well as help the geniuses come up with those all important cures. I will be going through the bone and CT scans this year to further assess my progress and will update you guys when that takes place.

Thank you all for listening and please let me know if you have any questions as I would love to be able to help any of you out either here in this thread or in PM.

Tim

[dbdynsty25]

Great news (most of it anyway) Tim! Glad to hear things are going fairly well and that you're hopes are high for a cure from all of the research institutes. I pray every day that someone can find a damn cure for Cancer in general like we did for other diseases that wiped out portions of our population.

Good luck w/ the rest of your recovery and hopefully the testosterone issue can be sorted out too. You know, so you can get to lovin'.