Friday Brad made the marathon trip with me to Atlanta. I figured that since he is now officially graduated from 8th Grade, as of Thursday night, he has a little more time on his hands.
Instead of the usual marathon, I thought I’d make it a little more special for him so we stayed the night in Atlanta. Everything else was the same; the early morning flight, the MARTA, the Zip Car Prius, the doctor appointment, etc. I did rent the car for an extra hour so we wouldn’t be so rushed to return the car and get to the hotel.
We laughed, we ate, we hit a few Starbucks, we swam at the hotel, we enjoyed the beautiful Atlanta Spring weather, we stayed up late and watched movies and woke up totally exhausted. My kind of get away!
There was more… but you’ll have to come back for that part of the story!
I received a call from Atlanta Friday morning with my PSA results from Thursday. Below are the four results I received from my trips to the doctor in Atlanta. For the record, January 27th was the day I started the trial.
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Date PSA Rate of Increase
27-Jan 200
24-Feb 250 20%
24-Mar 293 15%
21-Apr 328 11%
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At first blush, yes my number is up again, but the good news is the rate of increase continues to drop.
Additionally, when I talked with Dr. A Thursday he indicated that he has had several patients that he took off the trial after two to three months. Unlike my case, these men continued to see a rapid rise in PSA and, more importantly, a progression in bone pain. Although my number is up, the rate is slowing and the number of and severity of the aches and pains I experience are down from the previous visit.
Today I am seeing my local Oncologist. The bad news is that KUCC is not yet able to accept patients for the trial. I am less hopeful that they will be ready by May 20th, the date of my next check-up. I have made a few inquiries through some connections and should have a better idea by tomorrow.
In the past few days I received two separate emails with sad news. We lost two more men to this dreaded disease. One in his late 60’s the other in his late 70’s. Some what older than me, but still hard on both families.
In one case the man’s daughter said that though her dad was not much for computers, he always asked ‘how’s the young guy with the blog doing?’ From time to time she would update him on my progress and she indicated in her message he found it inspiring. That makes me feel good, I just wish the entire circumstance was different.
How many more have to lose their battle before we make a break though?