OT: Prostate Cancer

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DivotMaker
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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by DivotMaker »

I’m touched by everyone’s kind thoughts and prayers. I’m in a 15 Round bout with cancer and we are slugging it out. I will beat this with the support you have so graciously shown me along with my Family, Friends, and the incredible team at MDA.

Looks like I’ll be here another week as the bleeding has slowed greatly and I start chemotherapy today. Never again will I take something so routine as urinating for granted. And my outlook is that the dawn of each new day that I am on this side of the dirt, is like gravy on top of my biscuit.

Love you guys. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart,

I’ll update you guys when they turn me loose to go home.

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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by Sudz »

Stay strong!

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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by Jackdog »

Tim, you'll win this fight. Keep your head up brother!
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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by TheTruth »

Thoughts and prayers for you, your family and those treating you. Keep fighting!
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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by sportdan30 »

Amazed at your honesty and inspiration throughout this fight. One fight at a time. Thinking good thoughts.

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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by DivotMaker »

So thankful for all of the kind thoughts and support fellas. You guys are awesome!

I’m still in the hospital. Likely won’t be released until Thursday at the earliest. What an ordeal. That will be 10 days and I’m beyond ready to go home.

I started IV chemotherapy last Friday night. This is in addition to the oral chemotherapy I am taking on a daily basis as part of the clinical trial. This IV chemotherapy was accelerated due to my condition. The IV chemotherapy will be administered every 3 weeks for 10 weeks. I got a taste of the side effects yesterday as I was ready for them to shoot me. Absolutely miserable with headaches and nausea.

They turned the saline irrigation on my catheter off today and if I have a good night, the catheter comes out tomorrow morning.....can’t come soon enough. If we weren’t having a bad ass winter storm in the Houston area, I might be going home tomorrow.

Stay on top of your PSA and prostate health fellas. Prostate cancer is a b*tch and not to be taken lightly.

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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by 10spro »

Continuous prompt recovery Divot, thanks for sharing again and I do hope you get to be in the comfort of your home with your family very soon.

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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by Pete1210 »

Thanks for sharing and reminding us to get to the doctor. Sending more prayers your way.
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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by DivotMaker »

Thank you all again for your uplifting thoughts and prayers. They made a difference!

I just got home after 11 days and I am wiped out. Ironically, the VP of HR for my organization and I bumped into each other in the MD Anderson pharmacy (her sister has stage 4 pancreatic cancer and was in line to get her clinical trial meds) and she had no idea I was in the hospital. She told me to take my time coming back to work. I think I’ll take her up on that.

Take Care and Thanks Again Fellas!

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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by pk500 »

Glad you're home, Tim. Rest up and strengthen.

Continued prayers for you, brother!
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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by J_Cauthen »

I'm glad to hear you're back home Tim; a much better atmosphere in which to heal. I'm always anxious in a hospital whether I'm a patient or a visitor! I hope your nausea has subsided since you got back home... you need to keep an appetite to stay properly nourished with all the chemo in progress. Good to see you posting again, and hopefully you can squeeze a little gaming in here and there... it's good therapy! Keeping you in my prayers here...

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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by MERACE »

J_Cauthen wrote:I'm glad to hear you're back home Tim; a much better atmosphere in which to heal. I'm always anxious in a hospital whether I'm a patient or a visitor! I hope your nausea has subsided since you got back home... you need to keep an appetite to stay properly nourished with all the chemo in progress. Good to see you posting again, and hopefully you can squeeze a little gaming in here and there... it's good therapy! Keeping you in my prayers here...
Tim,

Dittos to all of what John just stated.

Along the lines of appetite, have the doctors suggested prescribing medical marijuana as an appetite stimulant? It's helped a couple friends of mine while undergoing chemo treatment.


-MERACE

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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by DivotMaker »

MERACE wrote:
J_Cauthen wrote:I'm glad to hear you're back home Tim; a much better atmosphere in which to heal. I'm always anxious in a hospital whether I'm a patient or a visitor! I hope your nausea has subsided since you got back home... you need to keep an appetite to stay properly nourished with all the chemo in progress. Good to see you posting again, and hopefully you can squeeze a little gaming in here and there... it's good therapy! Keeping you in my prayers here...
Tim,

Dittos to all of what John just stated.

Along the lines of appetite, have the doctors suggested prescribing medical marijuana as an appetite stimulant? It's helped a couple friends of mine while undergoing chemo treatment.


-MERACE
Mark,

Thanks. No issues with appetite, trust me. Ironically, the food in MD Anderson was VERY good. Some dishes I thought they had brought in, but no. Their breakfasts were phenomenal.

I can't consider medical marijuana at this time for two reasons.

1) I am part of a clinical trial and I can't even drink alcohol for the duration. My care team has seen zero benefits of medical marijuana to this point other than pain killing and making someone feel better. IOW, they did not seem to keen on the idea at this point, but were not 100% closed off to it if there is a benefit in the future.

2) I get randomly drug tested by my company even though I have been there 20 years. I have not even broached the subject with them since my care team hasn't seen a benefit for me.

Thanks for the thoughts!

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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by DivotMaker »

This is a response to John that I thought it better to post here and not further threadjack the TGC thread.
J_Cauthen wrote:
DivotMaker wrote:I wanted to play DSP last week, but just couldn't with Labs and Scans all day Monday and infusion chemo on Tuesday on top of getting an exemption to the World Tour to play the Masters there. Making the cut gave me my World Tour card and I finished 47th out of 90 players at -28. Also played TST on Magnolia and finished -10. Eight rounds of Augusta in the midst of the fog of chemo is all I could stand.

Great playing fellas and congrats to all who finished!
You scored a -10 playing TST at Magnolia!? That's quite a feat! I shudder to think of the numbers I'd post there playing TST... *IF* I could post one - it would probably end in a rage quit :)

Anyway, I pray that all is going well with your treatment? Infusion chemo consumes an entire day, does it not? I've been working 72 hours a week for the last four weeks, and it's all I can do to get in 72 - 108 holes in for the DSP Tour right now. I miss playing the TGC Tours and official Society events in that time. I'm looking forward to getting back into them coming Monday.
The infusion chemo takes about 3 hours along with a follow up visit with my Medical Team at MD Anderson. Every 6 weeks I get a full body bone scan and chest/pelvis CT Scan and that usually takes up an entire day as well, typically the day before the infusion chemo.

I am halfway through the infusion chemo as I take it every 3 weeks. My last one is July 19th. On top of this I am still taking a shot every 3 months of Lupron, the hormone therapy I have been on since day one and a daily oral chemo that is taken twice daily.

Once the infusion chemo is over and when I have the incontinence issues resolved, then we look at radiation therapy. They have made some tremendous advances in targeted radiotherapy and I am hoping this may be the knockout blow. Who knows, I may glow in the dark after that as they will have to zap the bladder tumor that put me in the hospital for 2 weeks in January and the 6 tumors on my spine, neck and ribs as well as a couple of lymph nodes.

All indications are all of this is improving, but I am hoping for a cure to stop this war that is about to enter it's 5th year taking place in my body.

Thank you again for the kind thoughts John.

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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by pk500 »

Continue the good fight, Tim. We're all pulling for you here, man!
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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by 10spro »

pk500 wrote:Continue the good fight, Tim. We're all pulling for you here, man!
Absolutely. Never give up, continue fighting this terrible disease, we are pulling for you. Stay strong!

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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by sportdan30 »

Hang in there! We're all thinking of you. I can't imagine everything you've gone through. Keep up the fight!

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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by Teal »

Kick that thing's ass!
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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by Diablo25 »

pk500 wrote:Continue the good fight, Tim. We're all pulling for you here, man!
Get it Divot! Fighting hard!
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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by MERACE »

Tim,

Keep fighting the good fight of faith! :!:

-MERACE

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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by DivotMaker »

You guys are an incredible source of inspiration and support!

I don't have the words......

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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by DivotMaker »

Just got the best Fathers Day gift I could ask for.....

Got the news last week that I am on "Treatment Vacation" from the infusion chemo and I'm really relieved. I was scheduled for 10 sessions every 3 weeks. I finished the 7th and the results demonstrated that we had accomplished a great deal and reached a response plateau. Great timing as the 7th was really hard and I never really recovered from it like I had the previous six. Walking from my recliner to take the trash out to the curb became a full blown chore.

I am still taking the quarterly hormone chemo and daily oral chemo as part of the clinical trial, but they do not gut me like the infusion chemo. As far as the cost, I reached my out of pocket when I left the MD Anderson hospital January 19th and you don't really want know what the YTD numbers look like. It is staggering. Thank God again that the Clinical trial is being paid for by the drug company and my insurance company is footing the rest of it.

Some stats to share with you:

Pre-infusion chemo:

PSA: 7.0
CTC (Circulating Tumor Cells): 29
9 new metastatic prostate cancer tumors on the bone and/or lymph nodes

Post-infusion chemo:

PSA: 0.6
CTC (Circulating Tumor Cells): 0
NO new prostate cancer tumors on the bone and/or lymph nodes and metastases has completely subsided.

Lots of lab work and bone/CT scans the next 3-6 months while we decide on the next course of treatment. Thank God I am done with that infusion chemo....and thank God for my Family (includes you guys) and my incredible MD Anderson Team!

Lastly, I'm also sharing my story with my work colleagues and two of them have reached out to me and thanked me for the awareness as they both went in to check their PSA's. One had no prostate cancer, but was on watch for it as his PSA was 3.2. The other was diagnosed and had a PSA of 9.4, but the disease is not metastatic which is HUGE. His treatment will be very straightforward and far less complicated than mine. He thanked me profusely for motivating him to go get it checked. I dearly hope all of you are on top of your PSA number and prostate health.

Happy Fathers Day to you all!

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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by pk500 »

Fantastic news, Tim. Keep up the good, strong fight!

Happy Father's Day.
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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by Teal »

That's great news! Gonna send u a pm.
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Re: OT: Prostate Cancer

Post by 10spro »

Incredible new Divot. Keep that fighting spirit, thanks for sharing as usual and have a great fathers’ day!

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