After today, and for some unknown reason, I’m feeling a but childish tonight! When you get through reading this update, you will probably think I’ve lost it. After five years, actually 64 months, nothing about this whole ordeal will EVER get me down. I say that with complete confidence, it will not!

First off, while searching for another video I ran across this classic. This is back from the days when cartoons were cartoons. Enjoy, perhaps it’s inclusion here will make more sense if you first read further.

Today, if nothing else, should be described as a whirlwind. At 9:00am we had an appointment with my Radiology Oncologist and by this afternoon I had already completed my first radiation treatment. I guess some details would help?

First, before I forget, the steroids are working, I went 19 hours between doses of pain pills! Better ye,t the steroids did not keep me awake last night, I slept for seven and a half straight hours!

Our meeting with Dr. S was great, as I’ve said here before, we have been lucky to have always found wonderful doctors throughout this whole journey. Dr. S is another example. Initially, he spent 45 minutes going over the details of the MRI. I created a picture on my iPad to illustrate what I am about to share. Please look up at the title of this post if you have any doubts about the quality of the picture!
Here’s what you are looking at and what we discussed. This is my legs and torso, my femurs are black, my bladder is red. I’ll start with the bladder and the green meanies. The green areas are swollen, cancerous lymph nodes and this is not good. They are not only pushing against my bladder but they are pushing against nerves and muscle and hence, the source of most, if not all of the severe pain I have been experiencing as of late.

The gray areas on the bones are also tumors. According the Dr. S the areas further down the femur on the left in the picture (my right side) and the circle on the right side in the picture are of less of a concern. That’s easy for him to say! If you think they look pretty scary in this wonderful illustration, you should see them on an MRI image! Mary and I, as you could guess, were more than a little shocked. The areas at the top of both femurs were almost as concerning, for another reason. Due to the amount of weight, stress and rotation in this area they are very susceptible to fractures and as the right side of the picture shows, I got some problems!

The good news in all of this, and believe me, there is good news, is that there were no fractures. On top of that Dr. S is 100% sure he can kill all of the cancer in each of these three areas. This will also only take thirteen radiation treatments, each only lasting about 8-10 minutes each day, and I already had one today.

A word of caution however, killing 100% of the cancer in these areas only means the cancer in these areas. It is not able to kill the cancer cells in my prostate, the area in my ribs nor all the other micro-metastasis that may be in other areas.

It also probably means my disc golfing days are over, at least for the next 3-4 months, but perhaps for good. I will be walking, keeping score and joining the gang and hope to return to doing atleast that much by mid-July. Yes, Mary, I heard him, I have to be very cautious!