Christmas

Update before ten

chemotherapy, Christmas, David Emerson, Lake of the Ozarks, PCa -

Before I get to your real reason for coming here an update from today I have to share a weather ‘event’. We were driving back from our annual shopping spree at Lake of the Ozarks and we stopped in Clinton, Mo, about an hour from home. When we got out to stretch out legs, etc. it was 65 degrees outside, absolutely beautiful. As was started back out, 15 minutes later it had dropped to 40 degrees and when we arrived home an hour late, it had dropped 41 degrees and was a mere 24! Overnight it is supposed to dip below 9 degrees! Crazy weather…

Hopefully the freezing rain we are also supposed to get won’t make our trip to KU Cancer Cancer too dangerous. The only thing that might make things easier is that this appointment is not until the afternoon, with treatment not beginning until 2:00pm.
I am somewhat reluctant about treatment #10, particularly after the last time. Ten days before Christmas, I could use some good news, something a little encouraging. I spent part of this morning updating a matrix Mary and I keep with all my test scores, as well as a list of what options lie ahead. After looking it over, my mind is all over the place. I’m not really sure what direction I want to go? If we have to make a change we can add DES or estrogen while continuing to see Dr. V, if we want to seek others options and possibly other clinical trials we are in all likely hood going to have to leave KC. Where we end up going would entirely depend on the trial. This is a decision I have dreaded for years. Not much has changed, the dread is still there….
So, that is where I’m at mentally, a little bit all over the place. Apprehensive, scared, encouraged, hopeful, indecisive……. wondering…. what lies ahead?

A Cold December morning

Advanced Prostate Cancer, Christmas, DN-101, prostate cancer -

We are off to see the doctor in a few minutes.

I am slightly apprehensive after last month’s slight bump in my PSA.

It’s the holiday season, I want and pray for a good number. I’m not being greedy here, not expecting or asking for my number to drop by 50%, just would like it to come in a little lower than last month. Something to indicate that the cancer has not started down the path that will lead us to our next treatment regime….likely chemo.

Also, just to add a little fuel to the fire and give some of you insight into what those of us with Advanced Prostate Cancer deal with, yet another clinical trial to treat Advanced PCa has been pulled. This one just happened to be the trial we were most interested in, both because it was available here in Kansas City and because of the nature of the trial. It turns out the incident of heart attack for trial patients was higher than anticipated. We are a little disappointed, but then again, we aren’t there yet anyway. It’s a bit disheartening as there are such limited treatment options for this stage of the disease.

Mary and I did spend the weekend decorating the house. I do love Christmas. The outside lights, trees and many many other decorations are scattered throughout the house. It kind of makes it easy to forget about cancer. At lease for a few minutes here and there.