David’s Blog

What a weekend

Advanced Prostate Cancer, David Emerson, disc golf, Dynamic Discs Open, Emporia KS, Lake Perry, PCa -

Here’s what you do when you have cancer – you try to ignore it. Maybe not ignore, perhpas it’s better if I say go on without it as best you can.

Friday, I left work a little early and joined a friend on his sailboat at Lake Perry. Lake Perry is about an hour from here, between Lawrence and Topeka, KS. It was a bit windy when we arrived but we were out on the lake by 6:30 PM and were able to sail for two hours.
It was unbelievably relaxing and Jim, I’m ready to go back when you are!!
Yesterday, I played disc golf with a smaller crowd since some of the guys were out playing in a tournament. It was good to see Mark back out with us. He’s first and foremost a ball golfer but I think he’s slowly but surely getting the bug, plus his back is feeling better. Regarding my game, I just couldn’t catch Rich, falling one shot short.
Last night we had family over for dinner on the patio and then enjoyed a fire in the fire pit. We really enjoyed the evening. The weather remains unseasonably cool…it’s hard to believe it’s August in Kansas City.
Today we drove to Emporia, KS and played in a disc golf tournament. I joined Pete, Steve and Steve. I played better in the morning than the afternoon and finished in a tie with Pete for 6th place. Yet another Steve played lights out this afternoon to move from 6th to 2nd place. Sometimes it’s really fun to watch another guy you are playing with tear it up. He’s also one of those very quiet, humble guys – great job Steve H.!!
So not real exciting to read, but I hope you found it to be worth sharing. I just wanted to share with you the fact that I’m not slowing down!

How low can you go?

Advanced Prostate Cancer, Cardinals, David Emerson, disc golf, PCa -

I’ll take a few points, just the beginning of a trend!

This morning I’m off to the doctor for my monthly shot and blood tests.
As always, it’s a crap shoot but my body is telling me things are going well on this new medication. At times, I find it somewhat amazing how in tune I am with every little tweak, ache, pain, etc. that I experience. It comes from four and a half years of constant worry, constant obsession. Right now I am feeling good vibes!

I spent Saturday and Sunday in St. Louis with my brothers. I introduced my nephews to disc golf and really hope they catch the bug. I watched a little golf with my dad and then took in the Cardinals game with my brothers. It was a great game and what a beautiful stadium! It wouldn’t be a trip without providing the family with a little tech support! Two printer, scanner, faxes in and working, one with wireless support! Note to the industry, Plug and Play is a joke!

It’s a rainy Monday, is this God’s way of telling me he is washing away the PCa cells? Perhaps. One way or another, I’ll know in about three hours.

Finally, school starts on Wednesday. Brad will be in seventh grade…I’m in shock! Where is the time going?

Prayers

Advanced Prostate Cancer, David Emerson, PCa, prayers, prostate cancer -

I’m not sure if I have, or even should share the following? I figure, what the heck.

As we sat in Mass on Sunday and prayed, I stopped to think what I really was asking God for when I pray.
I don’t ask for a cure to this disease, should I? Would that be selfish?
Mostly, I pray for time. I pray for good test results. I pray for happiness.

Next Monday is huge. Monday we will find out if re-starting Keto has helped. If not, we move on, but the options are not very encouraging.

The good news is that I feel great and would guess it is working, but we’ve been disappointed before, so I try not to get to excited. As Mary has put it, we are cautiously optimistic.

So I conclude with this:
God, give me strength
Allow me happiness in he midst of turmoil,
Provide me more time,
And the sense to know how to use it properly
In Jesus name,
Amen

The wbmw…

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I knew, just knew, that when I first saw her that there was something special about her. What I didn’t know was that we would eventually fall in love and spend the rest of our lives together.
While we have known each other for well over twenty years, it was eighteen years ago today that we were married.
As I have said here (not often enough I realize) is what she does for me is beyond special. What she means to me and how different I would be without her cannot be described by a few words on these pages.
She jokingly reminds me from time to time the she is “The wind beneath my wings” and you know what? She’s right on the money!
Without you, I’m nothing
With you, anything is possible

My mind was elsewhere

Advanced Prostate Cancer, David Emerson, PCa, the Big C -

Today we played a casual round of disc golf, Pete, Steve, Joe, Steve and myself. We all played rather terribly but the weather was ideal and the camaraderie top notch as we relived this past weeks events.

My thoughts were elsewhere as I could not help let my mind wander to the upcoming week. My friend Dan has his monthly follow up, please send a few prayers his way, Another friend John has a birthday tomorrow, Happy Birthday John!! Melissa turned the big 30 today, congratulations youngster!
Most importantly tomorrow is our 18th wedding anniversary and that weighed heavily on my mind.

I had already acquired a card and gifts for my lovely bride but I could not help wonder ‘how many more?” I pray for 20 and I hope for 25. Somewhat sobering to read, my apologies, but that’s where I was at and where my mind shifts to from time to time. I don’t dwell on it too long either as I continue to try to focus on what’s right and what’s good with my current condition. I am not sure there are many 46 year old men that could play 153 holes of disc golf in seven days, much less do it with advanced Prostate cancer. Seriously, I even cam home and mowed the grass!

I’m sharing this not in the hope of receiving accolades but because that is what this blog is all about, this is how I’m dealing with it, leading and living a “normal” life to the best of my ability. I hope and pray that there are others who find it and read it and are inspired to fight on!

Dan, my thoughts and prayers are with you tomorrow. John and Melissa, peace be with you both. Mary, well I’ll have much more to say about this tomorrow!

The final tally

Advanced Prostate Cancer, David Emerson, Disc Golf World Championships -

Today I finished this years World Disc Golf Championships, what a week it was.

I won’t go on and on with round by round coverage but instead will share the personal goals I had established before play began.

1) Shoot a total score of 360 or better. This was a bit of a stretch and meant that I had to average 60. Turns out I missed by little averaging 62.5 for a total of 375.

2) I wanted to shoot at least one round ‘rated’ 900 or above. A round rating is determined using your score versus all the other players in you division based on some highly complicated formula even I don’t understand fully. I consider this one a success because both yesterday morning and this afternoons rounds were over 900; 911 and 912, respectively.

3) I was trying to shoot par at the woods or ‘Down Under’ course but shot a 4 over 58. This included some terrible putting on my part. I missed 6 putts between 15 and 25 feet.

4) Finally, and most importantly I wanted to have fun and meet some new people – this was not much of goal to set because if I wasn’t having fun, what was the point of playing? Today I played with a most gracious man from Japan and a retired Army veteran from north east Kansas. During the week I played with guys from Tulsa, Austin, west Texas, Seattle, St Joseph Mo and South Dakota. In addition I met many, many other local and visiting players that were just great guys.

Enough for tonight next year the event is somewhere in OH and I have a tee time in the morning!

What is this all about?

David Emerson, Disc Golf World Championships -

It’s going to be a crazy week of disc golf with very few thoughts, worries and concerns about
Prostate Cancer. I will be wearing blue every opportunity I can get in addition to an FLHW hat
as well.

For those of you not familiar with the sport, here’s a little insight into this week:

http://www.pdga.com/videos/kansas-city-worlds-video-coverage-episode-1

Note is the voice over: the largest event in the history of the sport!!

Welcome to my World(s)

Advanced Prostate Cancer, David Emerson, Disc Golf World Championships, Ketokonizol -

Quick health update: I can feel the Keto working, seriously. Up until Tuesday I was experiencing pain where my thigh meets my right hip. While playing disc golf this last weekend I experienced mild pain when planting my front foot, a move that is very important to long drives. Anyway I started Keto Monday night I haven’t touched the Advil since! I even went out a practiced my drives last night with the bro-in-law. The result was absolutely no pain and some rather encouraging drives!
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I’m starting to get a little excited about the Disc Golf World Championships.
Here’s a story from our local Fox affiliate and several links if you want to follow along next week:

Up, up and ?

Abiraterone, Disc Golf World Championships, KC Worlds, Ketokonizol, Provenge, PSA -

We went to the KU Cancer Center this morning for my monthly visit with Dr. V and to receive my monthly Lupron shot. We left with one of those good news/bad news stories.


Good news is they took all the correct samples etc. and we were in and out in just over two hours! No missing vials, missed tests or long waits for the pharmacy. It was efficiency at it’s finest!

On the other hand, my PSA was up, way up. It now stands at 97.04 up from 66.14 last month.
While we did agree to pay less attention to my PSA when we left MD Anderson in April, this climb has me a bit concerned. This is my highest level since September 2006.I did leave with two new prescriptions for Ketoconozale and Hydrocortizone (HDK). This combination is what I took in 2006 when my initial treatment stopped working. It worked for 16 months, then I tried Nilandron, then I did chemo. Going back to Keto + HDK is somewhat of a risk. There is a chance that it might not work at all. We decided to give it one more try before moving on to something more serious and more toxic. We can try DES (very low amounts of estrogen) but want to keep that in reserve and may end up trying that next. Until some of the newer drugs (Provenge and Abiraterone) are either approved or open new trials, my next choice is another round of chemo in combination with some sort of clinical trial.I knew my PSA was going to be higher, I just did not expect it to be such a dramatic increase.

Last month when we met with Dr. V we discussed the option of starting Keto again, as we were aware my PSA level was steadily trending upwards. I’m not sure about all this yet. Mary and I had lunch and I came back to work. My head is swimming right now with many thoughts.

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On another note, the World Disc Golf Championships are being held in Kansas City next week. Nearly 1,000 disc golfers from around the world will be competing in various age groups and divisions. I signed up to play in the ‘Advanced Masters” division. This is for non-professional men over the age of 40. We play one round on Tuesday, two on Wednesday and Thursday and one more on Friday (the leaders play again Saturday).

Several of the guys I play with (who are better than me!) are in the same division and over all about seven of use that play on Saturday’s have entered in various divisions. Here is the website: http://kcworlds.com/

Starting on Tuesday the 28th you can see how I’m doing here: http://pdga.org/tournament-results?TournID=8105 Scroll down to “Advanced Masters” and look for my name, I signed up late so I’m not showing up as registered yet.

I really have no expectations but have set a few goals for myself; I want to post no score higher than the 60’s and finish in the 75th percentile or my division. Us local guys should have a slight advantage playing these courses all the time, but we’ll see if that helps at all! Overall, I just want to have fun, meet some new people and play respectable over the four days.

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