Lupron

I’m back!

Advanced Prostate Cancer, David Emerson, Lupron, NFL, Zometa -

Of course, as always, the title of this post signifies multiple references.

First up, I played disc golf both yesterday and today. Though I played well yesterday, today I was challenged by a course I have never played before and I stunk it up! I was even after five holes but the wheels fell off. Regardless, it was fun to be out again and play with Eric, Pete, Tim and the four Steves.

Next, and more importantly, tomorrow marks twenty eight days and that means it’s time to go see Dr. V. I feel really, really good, but as always, that doesn’t mean a thing. The routine will be the same; visit the lab for blood draws, infusion area for a Lupron shot and Zometa infusion then off to see the doc. You would think that after five and a half years (67 months) I would be used to this uneasiness. I’m not sure I ever will be comfortable before these appointments. So, I take a deep breath, enjoy the opening weekend of the NFL and try to get a good nights sleep. I can’t control what happens tomorrow, it is and remains in Gods hands.

In addition to the doctor tomorrow, we have an unbelievably busy two weeks ahead of us. I won’t bore you with the details now but I will provide updates as things progress. We are very much looking forward to the 6th annual FLHW golf tourney, which is now less than 2 weeks away.  No rest until the 25th!!

BIG NEWS, GOOD NEWS….BIG GOOD NEWS!

Advanced Prostate Cancer, chemotherapy, David Emerson, Lovenox, Lupron, PSA, taxotere -

I was going to drag this out, be cute, be creative, etc. but I am tired!
My PSA today was 39.98, a 25% reduction from three weeks ago!!!
WOO-HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
As I mentioned above, I am beat. We did not sleep well last night, and we had to leave the house at 7:15 this morning to make the 8:00 appointment. I had both my monthly appointment for Lupron and Zometa and my three week chemo treatment all in the same day. We were through at the hospital 12:30ish. In the four and a half hours we were there, I had the following procedures:
– 8:35 blood drawn
> White blood count back up to over 12 !!!!
> Most other markers were back in range, red blood count was still a little low, but no show stopper
– 9:00 Met with Doctor V, the Physicians Assistant and the Clinical Trial Coordinator
Everything seems to be progressing as expected with the blood clot in my leg. The good Doctor did give me the green light to play golf on Wednesday afternoon, so I was happy
– 10:00 Began pre-treatments
– 10:40 Began Taxotere infusion #4
– 11:45 Began Zometa infusion
– 12:20 Received the Lupron shot
Mary and I made our usual stop for lunch at The Blue Koi and were home by 2:00.

The simple things.

Advanced Prostate Cancer, Blue Koi, Lupron, Zometa -

Another month has passed. Another doctor appointment, another blood draw, another shot of Lupron, another infusion of Zometa and another lunch with my wife.

As boring and repetitive as the medical portion of these monthly sojourns may sound, there is one portion of the day that repeats it self each month which is something that I absolutely love. You see, Mary and I always have lunch when we are through. We always go to the Blue Koi. We always split an order of steamed chicken dumplings and an order of black bean chicken.

Long ago we stopped looking at the menu, it was just time wasted. We talk, we eat, we laugh and eventually, I go back to work.

It’s the simple things……

I no sooner clicked the Send button to post this entry and the phone rang with Dr. H on the other end. The current PSA level is 29.4 (Down from 36.2 on January 28th).

Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers!!!!!


….reaching back into the bag of tricks!

Advanced Prostate Cancer, Casodex, disc golf, HDK, Ketokonizol, Lupron, Nilandron, PCa, thunder snow -

Happy Anniversary, my blog was three years old yesterday!!!

Friday we met with the oncologist at KU Cancer Center. For those of you in Kansas City that have been in the former Sprint headquarters building on Shawnee Mission Parkway, you would never recognize it, the place is beautiful. They did a wonderful job of renovating the building. As for the service, the disposition of the support staff was consistently warm and friendly. It was quite a refreshing experience, given the situation. The icing on the cake, while sitting in the waiting room, a volunteer pushing a serving cart approached each person and offered refreshments water, soda or juice. Additionally, she offered light conversation and a smile. They get an “A” for service!

Our appointment with Dr. V lasted well over an hour. He was again very patient and sincere. We reviewed my statistics, medications, etc., as well as the health charts Mary and I maintain. We also reviewed a matrix that Mary created that lists potential treatments, based on the research that we have done. Dr. V told us that we captured the current options and took the time to discuss the plus and delta for each option. Before I discuss what’s next, I probably need to provide some history. I’ll leave out some of the details in order to keep this slightly shorter than War and Peace!

Feb 2005: I started Lupron and Casodex. Lupron is a shot, it shuts down the production of testosterone by the testicles. Casodex is an antiantrogen and shuts down the testosterone produced by the adrenal glands. This is the “standard” treatment for advanced prostate cancer, to which I had immediate, although short lived results.

November 2005: I stopped Casodex. In some cases this can lower PSA. In mine, it lasted a few months.

September 2006: With my PSA rising into the 80’s, I started High Dose Ketoconizal with Hydrocortizone (another antiandrogen). Though I reacted well, my PSA never fell below 16. Also, because I was not in pain, we stayed on this regimen through December 2007, when my PSA rose to 30.

Now: my PSA is at 36. There is no standard ‘next step’, there is a lot of grey. Below are the primary options that make up the grey:
– DES: this was the standard treatment years ago. It is still used in cases like mine. DES comes in a pill form that is taken once a day. The issue is it is Estrogen. With that comes breast enlargement. In order to compact the breast issue, patients are given a single round of radiation across the breast bone. [please keep your comments about the ‘man-zere’ and ‘bro’ to yourselves] It also caused some cardiovascular concerns, so it is typically taken with a blood thinner.

– Chemo: the FDA approved chemo treatment for Prostate Cancer is Taxotere with Prednisone. The drug is administered interveneously once every three weeks for 8-10 treatments (depending on tolerance and reactions).

– Then there are a number of alternative treatments. I hesitate to use the word ‘alternative’. This is not witch doctors using ‘goat horn and frog tongue’. This is expert medical doctors specializing in Prostate Cancer that primarily use approved drugs in an ‘off label’ manner.

> Where we ended up. Being that I am not on an antiandrogen at this time, Dr. V recommended I try one more variation of antiandrogen. Starting today I will begin taking Nilandron. Nilandron is similar to Casodex. The anticipated side effects are minimal. We’ll give this 4 weeks +/- to see if I respond. If not, then we will search once again through the grey and decide what the next course of treatment will be.
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On an unrelated topic; have you ever experienced ‘thunder snow’? Yesterday morning we were playing disc golf. Around 9:00 AM we started hearing thunder. Next thing we know the sky is filled with lightening and it begins to produce freezing rain. As we hurriedly made our way back to our cars, the precipitation changed to the consistency of Styrofoam. It was crazy, I guess you had to be there…….