You check your oil, have you checked your PSA lately?

Will do. For about 10 years I was Business Manager for the largest RV dealer in Eastern WA. Over that period I got to use many different sizes/brands whenever I wanted to take a trip. All I had to do was tell the shop which one and when I needed it. They'd have it fueled up and ready to go. Nice perk!
Well then, you can school me on RV's.... hahhaha
 
Of all the threads I’ve started on here this is by far the most difficult I’ve written. The reason? I have prostate cancer. Well, actually I have Metastasized Prostate Cancer.

About 2 months ago a long time friend of mine that I’ve met for coffee every Thursday for the past 25 or so years told me he had prostate cancer and was going to have his prostate removed. I’m 73 and he’s several years younger than I am. He asked me when the last time I had my PSA checked and I couldn’t honestly tell him.

A quick call to my local VA medical center disclosed that I had my last PSA test done when I was 70. I asked them why they didn’t do it every year when I had my physical done and they hid behind the recommendation of the CDC that says something about not doing them for men over 70. I asked them why and they said they didn’t know, that’s just what the CDC recommends.

Quite frankly, I feel like they let me down. I assumed (Yeah, I know…) they did that every year as part of my blood work. Had they told me they didn’t routinely screen for PSA after a certain age I’d have requested the test be done.

So, I had blood drawn and had a PSA test done and the results were sky high. High enough that they rushed through an approval for the VA to pick up the tab for me to see a urologist. I did, they did another PSA test and confirmed the reading and scheduled me for a CT Scan and MRI so they could determine the extent of the spread of the cancer cells.

So now that we know the cancer cells have spread throughout my body, attaching itself to bones at several locations in this otherwise perfect male specimen, they scheduled me to see an Oncologist.

So here I sit, writing this thread which took several beers before I could bring myself to do it. I’m facing 6 months of chemo treatments, one every 3 weeks. Nobody is predicting this is going to end my life early, in fact the only thing they are predicting at this point is that at the end of the 6 months they’ll reassess how things are going and likely put me on another type of treatment.

The odd thing is that I have ZERO symptoms. No pain, no joint stiffness, nothing. I’m sure after I start the chemo I’ll go through the usual nausea, maybe some vomiting, possible hair loss, but nobody can even say that with any certainty.

The chemo drug(s) are a type of poison designed to kill the cancer cells. That’s the good thing. The bad thing is it’s still a poison and it may wreak havoc on me.

One thing is for certain: I am NOT going to let this kick my butt either mentally or physically. I look at this as a speed bump. I’m going to get over it then get my life back up to speed. There’s just too damn many things I have yet to accomplish in my life.

So, back to the question I posed in the title: When was the last time you had your PSA tested? Don’t let them tell you that because you’ve reached a certain age you don’t need your PSA tested. Bull crap. Get it done. Get it done this spring, and preferably before the next time you check the oil in your boat.

I didn’t write this thread looking for sympathy. That’s now how I roll. I wrote it with the hopes that some of you old farts out there who don’t know when you last had it tested will get your butt in gear and go see your doctor.

Smooth waters, light winds and fair skies.

I’m in the same boat as you. Been telling all my over seas buddies to get the PSA test like a religion. I don’t have any symptoms either. The three urologists I’ve consulted tell me I’m a healthy old fart; well except for all that cancer stuff. All that aside; Main thing is don’t let the proverbial “slipped through the cracks” get your ass. Medical testing is many times predicated on statistical models. Meaning if your the the number to the left of the bell curve you might one day hear how your condition is a medical anomaly.
I speak from experience; that sucks. I’m so fed up with hearing “this happens in less than 2% of cases”.
Bottom line; get your PSA tested. keep testing it at least annually.
Get smart about this prostate cancer or it will kick your ass.
 
stephens013, sorry to hear you have joined this "club". The last two sentences you wrote summed it all up very nicely. Get tested or get your ass kicked.
 
stephens013, sorry to hear you have joined this "club". The last two sentences you wrote summed it all up very nicely. Get tested or get your ass kicked.

What's the old saying about not wanting to be a memeber of a club that would have me. It's amazing how fast this came into my life. Never thought it would be me. And no matter what; it's a life changer.
My best wishes to you.
 
All this 'stay home, stay safe' stuff must be getting to me because it has stirred my creative juices. It was getting toward lunch time so I created a new monster....

Here's the standard BLT, plus I added avacado, mayo and a fried egg. YUM. Apparently this chemo stuff doesn't affect my appetite.

20200523-114500.jpg
 
Shephens, welcome to the "club" I'm sorry your here.

I wish I had your health and I figured after the Bypass I was close to done with scares and doctors. Silly me.
 
Well today was my last chemo treatment. It was just like the prior 5 with one small exception--I installed Pandora on my phone and listened to my favorite groups from the 60'.

I fell asleep after about 15-20 minutes and slept like a baby. They went through the whole series of bags of the medicine before they woke me up. Who'da ever thunk a guy could sleep through a chemo treatment.
 
Thanks, Mark. I'm giving it my best shot. It's a few minutes to 10p as I sit here. I'm feeling 100% and have all day. If the pattern holds I'll have 2 more days of feeling"normal" before the down days arrive and I'll spend 3-4 days flat on my back on my recliner, covered with a blanked trying to keep my body warm. Then it's back to normal again.

I'm getting another MRI done so we can compare the before and after photos then determine our course of treatment. The doc said today that likely will be a 2/day chemo pill that's low dose.

Then I posed the question to him:
If 6 treatments gets us to the point we're at and we can verify our success with another MRI, and we find success, why not do 7 or 8 or 9 tests? Or do them forever?

He really didn't have a solid answer except to say that all the studies on this drug we're using (he described it as "very aggressive") were done on 6 treatments.

If we did more than 6 there is no data to suggest what the long term (over a course of years) might be if the number of treatments exceeded 6. So we limit it at 6 for now.

If the PSA numbers start to climb in the future he likely will put me back on this current drug for another 6 treatments. My PSA numbers have dropped by a but more than 50% over the last month. Yippee!
 
Great to hear your success....keep it up. Just curious what the drug is they are prescribing
 
Blueone, I still have not forgotten your question but this final chemo treatment has absolutely kicked my butt. This is the first time since last Wednesday that I've been out of bed and I've only made it as far as my recliner, sitting here covered with blankets.

As many of you know 2 friends and I are taking the boat around the coast to Seattle to list it with a broker. We're leaving on the 7th of July and expect it to take 7 days without weather delays. So I need to get my butt healthy enough to be able to make that trip.
 
Great to hear your success....keep it up. Just curious what the drug is they are prescribing
Blueone, I sat down yesterday and thumbed through the entire stack of paperwork I have concerning this chemo program and nowhere in there did I find mention of the name of the drug.

HOWEVER, if you go back to post #85 of this thread you will find a photo of the chemo bag. I looked at it and found the name:
DOCaxel (Taxotere, 170.3 mg in sodium chloride.

Hope that's what you're looking for.
 
Hey Mike, thanks for this post and I'm glad that you're doing well and reaching the end of chemo. Your post spurred me to get my "annual" physical as it's been 7 years since my last one. Thankfully All's Well and I got an extended warranty. Take care and I hope that your next attempt at delivery is a great trip. Take care
 
AW, you are absolutely welcome. By my count you are the 12th person who has told me they got a physical and PSA test becaue of this thread. That was the whole purpose of it.
 
And also do not delay the backside "periscope" test. Saved my life...
 
My understanding is the PSA test is not definitive and can miss active prostate cancer for some reason? I get an annual comprehensive physical and they do both PSA and the digital exam. I guess the doctors use the PSA results and the interview about other prostate enlargement symptoms related to taking a leak in deciding how seriously to do the digital exam. So getting both tests and honesty with the questions about any changes you have noticed, will give you the best shot at an early detection.
 
PSA once doesn’t tell in much. It is the trend they look at. Is it rising? How much and how high? Also how old are you. All this is considered.

Elevated PSA was the first sign of my rectal cancer. Had a negative prostate biopsy. Was treated medicinally and it started to come down.

Had my 5 year routine colonoscopy and they found the cancer. The tumor was pushing on my prostate causing the elevated levels.

After my surgery and tumor removal, my PSA dropped to virtually zero.

As far as the cancer... I had no other symptoms other than occasional constipation.

Do not avoid a colonoscopy.
 
You two are correct that the PSA by itself is not conclusive. As with many medical things, it is an indicator of a potential problem. Another example would be taking your blood pressure. A high BP reading is a possible indicator of other things and gives the docs a starting point to look further.
 
This being Veteran's Day (Not that this has anything to do with anything) I thought I'd give you an update on what's going on in my life.

First of all, I couldn't possibly be feeling any better than I am today. Sailor got me up at 7:30 a.m. for our morning walk. It was chilly (38*) but no wind and a beautiful sunny day.

I spent part of the morning cleaning leaves out of the pool because the guys are coming tomorrow to shut it down for the winter, Then spent an hour or so with the lawn tractor picking up leaves in my yard as well as 4 neighbors' yards.

It's a beautiful day today after several days of high winds and some rain. It felt really good to be out with him and let him sniff his way up and down the river., Our walks usually take about 30 minutes and I let him set the pace and direction. I'm not sure which of us enjoys it most.

Last week I had a checkup with my oncologist. We both were pleased with how I'm handling this cancer crap. My PSA level was down to 4.39 which is a huge improvement over what it has been! Whatever he's doing it's working. The best part of that office visit was getting a shot in my butt from a 5'10" tall, slender blonde, good looking nurse. Ahhhh, life is good.

I'm feeling better all the time and I'm REALLY enjoying that. The old spring is back in my step and I'm getting stronger all the time. I love finding the little improvements that let me know things are getting better. I'm talking LITTLE things like being able to open the tab top on a beer. Couldn't do that with just my finger nails up until about a month ago.

My hair has started to grow back and it looks like it's going to be a bit whiter than it was before, and my fingernails are almost grown to full lenth. (I lost 5 fingernails and 4 toe nails from the chemo). Again, little successes are greatly appreciated.

As many of you know two friends and I took the boat around the coast to Seattle in August to sell. I couldn't have asked for better weather and a good time was had by all of us. When we set out on that trip I had a bit of trepidation about it:
..was the boat going to run without any problems?..it did
..was the weather going to cooperate?..it was wonderful except for the first day
..were the 3 of us going to get along without any personality conflicts?..yes
..were we going to make it without anyone getting seasick?...no problems there

So all things considered the trip was a success by anyone's measure.

So I hope this finds all of you in good health and good spririts and looking forward to the end of this COVID crap.

Happy Veteran's Day, Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas to all of you, and to all a good night!
 

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