MD Anderson

When “nothing” makes you happy

Advanced Prostate Cancer, bone scan, David Emerson, MD Anderson, PCa -

The taste of saline was strong, stronger than I remembered. It had been awhile. The tears themselves started from laughter and evolved to tears of sorrow.

Mary and I watch “Marley & Me” last night here in Houston. I won’t talk much about the movie so as not to spoil it for those of you who may not have seen it yet, however, it was a great movie. It won’t win any awards mind you, but for those of us with dogs, and Labradors to be specific, the reality is spot on. As the movie evolved on the screen the tears of laughter turned to tears of sorrow. It was not just about the fate of the dog, but the thoughts of death itself.

It all hit too close to home for me.

It was the culmination of the day’s events, and the fact that it is Holy Week.

Yesterday we spent the day at MD Anderson Hospital in Houston. Through a few contacts we were able to secure an appointment with the Chair of the Genitourological department, who I will refer to as Dr. L. More on him later, but in a nut shell, what an incredible doctor, man, care giver.

After checking in at 10:00am and going through the paper work process we headed to the lab so the vampires could extract seven vials of my blood. The lab area was a stark shot of reality; packed with cancer patients in various stages of treatement. From wide eyed newly diagnosed patients to those poor souls that chemo has obviously ravaged. Silent Hail Marys streamed through my concious thoughts as we waited.

After the finishing up at the lab, we ate lunchand then returned to the seventh floor to wait for our 1:00pm appointment with Dr. L. As is typically the case, we did not follow the planned schedule… we actually met with the doctor at 2:15pm. The wait was a much different experience. Much of the time was spent completing a lengthy review and clarification of my status, x-rays and scans with his nurse practitioner, so the hour flew by.

Our time with the doctor was approximately thirty minutes, no more. The thirty minutes were, for the lack of a better term, incredible. After four years, we think we know a lot about prostate cancer, but we learned more in that thirty minutes than most of the last four years combined. In this case it was specific to me, but it really opened, or re-opened my eyes to my current status.

Since I’ve rambled quite a bit, here is the bottom line – his recommendation? Do ‘nothing’ for now. On the one hand, this is fantastic, on the other, as someone with a demon called cancer living inside him, doing ‘nothing’ is one hard pill to swallow. After listening to and letting his recommedation sink in, it really makes sense. The highlights are this; the bone tumors are ‘attached’ to the bone, not attacking or destroying from within the bone. Two, chemo is still working, we need to allow it to complete it’s full course before we jump into the next treatment. The doctor advised us to approach our treatment strategy as one would any chronic illness. To fully consider my symptoms and current condition when making treatment decisions and making sure we reap the full benefits of each treatment. He was quite complementary regarding how we and our doctors have managed my case to date. So we return to Kansas City with orders to watch a few new blood markers because given my condition, the PSA level should not be the exclusive marker to track the activity of the cancer cells. Details of the new markers will be shared in a future blog.

The doctor also provided a lot of hope for the future. There a number of drugs in clinical trials that are or may become available when I may need them in the months and years ahead. It is the current research and clinical trials that reinforces our hope.

Our experience with MD Anderson this time was so different than in 2005. 180 degrees different and in a wonderful way. The compassion, and strategic approach that the staff shared with us was exceptional. Primarily, we credit this experience to Dr. L and his staff. The other factor is that Mary and I have matured in our knowledge and approach to managing this beast called prostate cancer.

On my way out….

Advanced Prostate Cancer, Dana Jennings, David Emerson, MD Anderson, MDV3100, PCa -
Before I head out I thought I’d share two things.

First, there was a bit of good news today as it relates to treatments.

Here’s the story from Bloomberg.

Interesting note, the research was funded via the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Perhaps
FLHW.org is doing some good!

Second item is from another, more prominent PCa blogger. I may have mentioned him here before? Dana Jennings, (a New York Times editor writes each week about coping with an aggressive form of prostate cancer) His latest blog is here. His words say so much better was I was trying to get across at the end of my last blog.

Stay tuned, more from the road…..


Out like a lion….

Advanced Prostate Cancer, Charity Disc Golf, David Emerson, MD Anderson, World Disc Golf Championship -

With the beginning of Spring and the end of March came a nice little reminder from Mother Nature as to who’s in charge! We received a late season snow storm yesterday that delivered about 5 inches of snow on our house. It was very pretty to wake to this morning, but rather heavy to shovel from the driveway.

Tomorrow is my four week appointment with Dr. V, as well as a Lupron shot and Zometa infusion. I am rather concerned about my PSA, being that my sole treatment right now is Lupron. It has been two months since my last chemo treatment. Where did the time go?

Overall, I am still feeling very good. I worked out four mornings last week, I was able to shovel the driveway this morning and even played disc golf again yesterday morning before the snow arrived. I have been experiencing mild pain in both knees throughout the day. Nothing real bad, in fact I have yet to take Advil to deal with the pain. I’m not sure of the connection, but this all started after I weaned myself from the daily steroids I was taking until about two weeks ago. I was taking the prednisone during the chemo regimen. I had to slowly withdraw over two weeks. We definitely will discuss with Dr. V tomorrow.

At this point MD Anderson has received my records and we are expecting a call early this coming week to begin the scheduling process.
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A few non-David health related updates:

On May 9th we will be holding the 2nd Annual FLHW Disc Golf Tournament. We were fortunate enough this year to gain access to one of Kansas City’s newest private courses. A wonderfully generous man built the course for the express purpose of providing non-profit foundations an alternative venue for fund raising events in Kansas City. I recently discovered that the course will also be used for this summer’s World Disc Golf Championship being held here in KC. We are hoping that this might attract a few more teams that are looking for ways to get on and practice before this summer’s major event.

The man who owns the property and course is the owner of Suburban Lawn and Garden. He does some unbelievably philanthropic things here in Kansas City. As we began to plan the disc golf event he extended an offer for a new program at the greenhouse and garden center at 135th and Wornall. Each Friday, for six consecutive weeks, a different charity will receive 10% of all sales between 5 and 8 pm. Also, during the week leading up to the event the charity will be able provide information about their charity to Suburban’s customers. FLHW has secured Friday, June 5th! We are very pleased that will give us yet another opportunity to promote the importance of early detection for prostate cancer and make men and women more aware of this disease that kills 28,000 men annually. More details regarding this event will be forthcoming as the date approaches.

In like a lamb…

Advanced Prostate Cancer, David Emerson, MD Anderson, PSA -

On Monday, March 2nd, I had my monthly appointment for Zometa (bone strengthener) and Lupron (testosterone suppressor). I thought my next meeting with Dr. V was on the 30th of March, so I asked the lab to draw enough blood to run a PSA test.

The result?

Down to 36.41 or almost two points lower! Not a big decrease (considered statistically stable), but a move in the right direction none the less…We’ll take it!

It turned out we did have an appointment with Dr. V, but it was brief. He was going to provide feedback from a conference the week before, be he was not able to attend. We were going to provide him an update on our potential decision on next steps, but we were not yet prepared to make that decision.

Later that Monday, we were able to consult with a medical expert who shared with us his personal opinion of the best option for us to treat my specific condition. In considering where the treatments are offered, we may be headed back down to MD Anderson. We will probably pursue a clinical trial that offers bone targeted therapy. Given that my specific cancer is thriving off the tumors in my bones, we think it makes sense to find a treatment that targets the bone metastasis. We will make arrangements to meet with a doctor down at MD Anderson and ask for their second opinion regarding the next treatment.

That’s all I have to report for now. I’ll post further updates as the details unfold. In the mean time, taking it one day at a time!