Beltane and the Recovery Moon

Left early for Lone Tree, around 8 am. Had to find my Lupron. Met Shelley, the four-month transplant from Georgia. She’s a nurse practitioner who came here from a 45-doctor group. I’ll be your prostate cancer guru.

We talked. Nobody likes these side effects, Shelley said. She especially underlined hot flashes. Black Cohosh was her top recommendation. A plant based product you pick up in the herbal supplement segment of a drugstore or grocery store. Some have mild hot flashes, some not so mild, some extreme. We have a medicine we can give you if they get really bad. Didn’t find that reassuring.

She also told me to get a calcium-vitamin d3 combo. Lupron makes your bones soft, Shelley said in her distinct Southern drawl. If you fall, it’s easier to cause a break. She also gave me a copy of the Man Plan. Geez. It’s an exercise program for those getting dosed by Lupron.

I have to go back to see Shelley in September. Apparently Lupron alone can suppress the PSA all the way down to zero. That’s why you put up with the side effects. It doesn’t cure cancer, but it can slow it down. I don’t understand why blocking the cancer’s main energy source doesn’t cure it. A question I’ll have to ask.

She gave me two pamphlets, a folder with helpful hints, and, a shot of Lupron in the left hip. Didn’t hurt much though it can. They asked me about it later at Anova. Had a couple of hours until my radiation, so I hit breakfast spots near me on my phone. Found the Three Griddles a couple of miles away.

It was, synchronistically, a Southern breakfast joint. Shelley would like it. I had corned pork on cheese grits with two eggs over easy. No coffee though. Two glasses of water. While enjoying this taste of Savannah, I read about Lupron.

Later at Anova my second session got delayed by an emergency for some guy who looked gray, sick, unhappy. Then it got further delayed by gas. I’ve been following the recommendations. I want to be a good patient, help them align the Cancer Predator, so I felt a little ashamed.

Baroque music this time. A poor choice, it turned out. The piece that played longest was downright funereal. Not the mood I was looking for while a red laser beam bisected my torso and the Cyber Knife did its robot dance around me.

Afterward I got a note from Dr. Gilroy to get Beano and Miralax. I drove through Deer Creek Canyon. Stopped at King Sooper. Bought the Black Cohosh, the calcium plus vitamin d3, Beano, and a big bottle of Miralax. Fun times.

Here’s the takeaway on this, the third day of treatment. The Lupron is racing around right now suppressing the manly hormone. The radiation has begun its job of killing cancer cells. I don’t know what the side effects of either of these are going to be.

Is the loggy feeling I have this morning normal or the Lupron? Will the hot flashes start? What about that achy knee? A strange sensation, waiting, not for Godot, but for the first sign of a foreign agent’s impact on my body.

Told Kate last night that I’m used to taking pyschoactive drugs. There’s a period between when you take them and when they begin to alter your mind. But, I said, in that instance I’m expecting something pleasurable, significant, interesting. In this one the primary purpose, killing cancer cells and suppressing testosterone, is silent, while the knock on effects of the treatment is neither pleasant or significant or interesting.

Beltane and the Recovery Moon

Important note. Whether or not I get a cure from this combination of radiation and hormone therapy, together they will slow down the cancer. That means I’ll live longer than I would with no treatment. If a cure doesn’t happen, I may live into another period of advances in treatment.

Still absorbing. I’ve passed the shock of omg I’ve got cancer again! I’ve passed through struggles over imaging. Now, I have data. Two negative imaging studies and a PSA of high velocity, 3.01 in the last test. I prefer knowing what’s going on.

I’m in a different location now. A treatment plan in place. (see post below) Within that decision was a secondary but important choice. To go after the cancer aggressively. The addition of the lupron reflects that choice.

Sometime next week I’ll get calls from a nurse practitioner who administers and manages the lupron injections. She’ll give me more information about what to expect, what to do. In my instance I’ll get injections every three months for up to two years.

Also next week I’ll get a call from the radiation therapy folks at Littleton Adventist. We’ll set up a schedule for my 35 sessions. They call this fractionation. My prescription is 70 Gy’s (a measure of radiation) spread out over 35 10-minute doses, fractions.

When you get into cancer treatment, the brutality of it, a therapeutic necessity for much of what’s on offer, presents its own set of problems. What doesn’t kill you may cure you, but not without a price. How high a price is different for each individual and unknown at this point for me as a result.

That does make the upcoming weeks and months more fraught. In addition to the question of how therapeutic the radiation and the Lupron are there is question of how severe their side effects will be. There’s a deep irony in this reality. What’s curing is hurting.

Am I concerned about all this? Yes. It gives the time ahead two different sorts of uncertainty. Wish it were as clean as my initial decision to get my prostate out of my body. That was straightforward. Surgery. Recovery. Done.

Not these treatments. Some side effects of the radiation may not manifest for years. Side effects of the Lupron will be more immediate.

Beltane and the Recovery Moon

So. Cancer treatment plan. After negative findings for bone lesions and metastases in the thorax-most excellent news-we’re left with the rising PSA as evidence of a cancer return. Since my PSA jumped from 1.3 to 3.01 in two months, this is a more aggressive bugger, but likely confined still to the prosate fossa (bed) where my prostate isn’t.

In my situation Gilroy has recommended 70 Gy’s of radiation over 35 sessions, 5 days a week for 7 weeks. This is a usual plan. He also recommended, due to the PSA jump, the addition of Lupron, a testosterone suppressing drug. Both can have significant side effects, but I’ll deal with those if and as they come.

I chose Littleton hospital as the site for my radiation because it’s a bit easier to access than Gilroy’s shop. Kate has had several imaging studies there and my bone scan and ct were there. I’ve been impressed with their professionalism and kindness.

Gonna get some books on cd. 35 round trips will get me through at least one or two.

No one knows what the future holds. Except for that one certainty. All this is an attempt to push the date of that certainty further away than doing nothing. I’m hopeful, cautiously optimistic.