Very good news…my PSA dropped from 112 to 81—a 31 point drop! The Doc is pleased with my continued tolerance of the Taxotere and says we will just stay the course until I have symptoms that I’m no longer tolerating it. More good news is that I’ve gained almost 5 pounds since last time…at this rate I’ll have to go on a diet!
I’m being treated as we speak so I will be in the dreaded NADIR this weekend….it’s going to be a sunny mid 80’s weekend….it always is. I can count on 1 hand the rainy NADIR weekends…..my point is that you can make vacation plans around it “Well Bobs in NADIR that weekend so let’s go ahead and plan to go to the mountains or beach.”
Some sobering news, I asked the Doc point blank…what is my prognosis? He reminded me that there is no cure. Statistically from where I am today…..18-24 months…..Yeah, that’s what I said too! On a somewhat brighter side he did go on to say that I have set records with my Taxotere treatments, obviously tolerating better than most and it’s working at depressing the disease. Part of the problem is that as soon as I go off the Taxotere my PSA immediately begins to climb. The hope is that there will be a breakthrough drug that will suppress the disease for extended periods of time…that’s not just pie in the sky thinking there are 100’s of clinical trials being conducted to do just that.
I mentioned in an earlier post that the FDA is expected to approve new chemo that is in pill form. He said once the Taxotere begins to fail or I’m getting too beat up by it that he will put me on that then he said “and perhaps you can see 5 years!” ....I explained to him that he was wrong once again because I have a 10 year plan! He said he hoped he was wrong and gave me a thumbs up......5 years indeed......I intend to die with at least a 7 in front of my age!
As some of you know I’m writing a book....And if I don’t do some more work on it soon it’s going to end up being a pamphlet!
The draft prologue is: Have you ever looked around and said "How the hell did I ever get Here?" Here not being a place of course but your life circumstances.
It’s a good “Gut” check and should be thought about every couple of years at least. It can answer; why am I…where I am?......Where “Here” is doesn’t have to be a bad place……it’s a position in life….and it really all comes back to the fact that the “Buck Stops Here”. We all have good or not so good genes, privileges or not, opportunities or not…..and then mix all that in with exterior influences……which leads right into what I feel is the real answer…..that we are where we are because of our own decisions while dealing with those exterior forces…the ones that we can’t always control…how we decide determines our directions and thus our destinations.
There are religions around the world that believe that this is the reason we keep comin’ back around….giving us another chance to make those same decisions….again.
I spent a very nice part of my life around Pecan trees, lots of them…used to sell the Pecans to raise Christmas money…and lots of it….Well, it turns out that my daughter has several wonderful Pecan trees of various smaller to larger sizes. Off to the side is the most spectacular of the trees, tall and a wonderful even trunk and canopy…….Well, after having an Arborist look at the situation it turns out that the spectacular tree is the only female Pecan tree for over 9 miles……All the variously aged trees that had grown around are male trees that….by acts of God and Nature brought them to this one and only female that can now pollinate for over 100 years……….What a Slut!
I spent Easter with life long friends at the Beach…the saying goes “If you’re lucky enough to live at the Beach……You’re lucky enough!”
Please keep the Spiritual Energy and Prayers coming…they do help! B.
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