As I'm sure you'll understand I have a bit of a problem with my immune system.
This isn't something new - it is related to the Prolactinoma, and possibly the arthritis. But with the prostate cancer and the radiation it seems to be a bit worse.
Which brings me to last week.
I got, what I realize now, was a touch of the flu. But when you're sick any little thing sets of a roller coaster of turmoil. Is it the cancer? Side effects of treatment? Or, and this is the scary one, something new?
Because, you know, I just don't spend enough time thinking about my health. I would love to take a vacation for a few days. Unfortunately, it's impossible to vacation from yourself.
Well, not without anesthesia. :)
But I'm back baby! Ready to go. Now if I just had last week back . . . :)
Monday, October 10, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
And another week down
It's been an interesting week.
The fatigue is gone, the nausea is gone, and the other symptoms seem to each have their 'special day'. One day, I'll have a restricted urinary flow, the next . . . well, there's an analogy about a race horse in there somewhere. Use your imagination.
It's interesting. In a clinical sort of way.
The other side effects come and go. None of them are incapacitating. Just irritating. Well, and sometimes painful.
I'm also getting that feeling of 'sitting on a golf ball' that some patients have reported. That's okay, I don't like hard chairs. :)
I am very much looking forward to the next couple of months and slowly returning back to 'normal'. Whatever that is.
I had an appointment with my endocrinologist the other day. (For an unrelated condition - a Prolacinoma) I did not take the hormone therapy because this lovely little nugget I have in my noggin suppresses testosterone. I had been on bi-monthly injections until the diagnosis in April. Anyway, we were discussing when I could start the testosterone again because honestly - the side effects from the brachytherapy are irritating, but the lack of testosterone permeates every part of my life. It's kind of a double whammy.
It's not looking like he will be willing to start the treatments any time in the near future.
That sucks.
The fatigue is gone, the nausea is gone, and the other symptoms seem to each have their 'special day'. One day, I'll have a restricted urinary flow, the next . . . well, there's an analogy about a race horse in there somewhere. Use your imagination.
It's interesting. In a clinical sort of way.
The other side effects come and go. None of them are incapacitating. Just irritating. Well, and sometimes painful.
I'm also getting that feeling of 'sitting on a golf ball' that some patients have reported. That's okay, I don't like hard chairs. :)
I am very much looking forward to the next couple of months and slowly returning back to 'normal'. Whatever that is.
I had an appointment with my endocrinologist the other day. (For an unrelated condition - a Prolacinoma) I did not take the hormone therapy because this lovely little nugget I have in my noggin suppresses testosterone. I had been on bi-monthly injections until the diagnosis in April. Anyway, we were discussing when I could start the testosterone again because honestly - the side effects from the brachytherapy are irritating, but the lack of testosterone permeates every part of my life. It's kind of a double whammy.
It's not looking like he will be willing to start the treatments any time in the near future.
That sucks.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Side Effect Redeux
Well, I seem to be on a 'side effect' roller coaster.
Just when I think I've put some things behind me . . . BOOM! There they are again.
It's not incapacitating. It's just a little miserable. And annoying.
Dang will I be glad with the next few months are over.
Of course, I also know that if I could get back on the bike my perspective would be much better. I really thought I would get to catch a little bit of summer, but no such luck.
Well, that's what heated clothing is for. :)
Just when I think I've put some things behind me . . . BOOM! There they are again.
It's not incapacitating. It's just a little miserable. And annoying.
Dang will I be glad with the next few months are over.
Of course, I also know that if I could get back on the bike my perspective would be much better. I really thought I would get to catch a little bit of summer, but no such luck.
Well, that's what heated clothing is for. :)
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Exactly what I've been saying
I don't know why the doctors continue to paint such rosy pictures for normalcy after prostate cancer. Each of the docs I went to said "The other therapies leave significant side effects, but not mine."
Then they would offer reassuring words, give me a handout with statistics to back up what they had said, and out the door I went.
Here is the sobering truth.
“I had surgery by a doctor who said 98 percent of my patients are perfectly fine,” said Mr. Nelson, now 51. “Of course, I wasn’t perfectly fine.”
The Side Effects? Well, There Is One...
Realistic expectations MUST be communicated. Otherwise you set men up for a double-whammy.
But I have a feeling that it once again comes down to money. Physicians don't follow the #1 rule of a great business - under promise and over deliver.
But then again, we don't have a lot of choice, do we?
Then they would offer reassuring words, give me a handout with statistics to back up what they had said, and out the door I went.
Here is the sobering truth.
“I had surgery by a doctor who said 98 percent of my patients are perfectly fine,” said Mr. Nelson, now 51. “Of course, I wasn’t perfectly fine.”
The Side Effects? Well, There Is One...
Realistic expectations MUST be communicated. Otherwise you set men up for a double-whammy.
But I have a feeling that it once again comes down to money. Physicians don't follow the #1 rule of a great business - under promise and over deliver.
But then again, we don't have a lot of choice, do we?
Monday, September 19, 2011
Guess I didn't know . . .
You ever notice that sometimes you don't know how sick you are until you start to feel better?
That's what happened to me this weekend.
Finally the fatigue and nausea lifted. I've actually spent the last 5 days or so with little to no nausea. That's a big difference.
And a welcome one.
But it does make me look back over the last few weeks since the procedure, and realize that I have been very, very sick.
I think one of the main things that has bothered me about this whole process is that every piece of literature I've read - regardless of the method of treatment - lists the possible side effects but ends with 'but you'll be fine'. So, we expect to feel bad for a couple of weeks and then get on with our lives close to normal.
A few weeks ago a study came out showing that men that have had prostate surgery are deeply regretful about 2 years after the fact. The medical community kind of tossed it's hands in the air and said that the patients were 'overly optimistic' regarding their recovery and the life-ling impacts of the surgery. They couldn't understand why the men aren't getting the message.
Life After Prostate Surgery Worse Than Men Expect
Well, that's because side effects are downplayed. In the literature AND in the physicians office.
Over-promised and under-delivered. That's a recipe for dissatisfaction.
I'm still glad I had the radiation. I think.
I guess we will have to see where the next couple of years takes me.
That's what happened to me this weekend.
Finally the fatigue and nausea lifted. I've actually spent the last 5 days or so with little to no nausea. That's a big difference.
And a welcome one.
But it does make me look back over the last few weeks since the procedure, and realize that I have been very, very sick.
I think one of the main things that has bothered me about this whole process is that every piece of literature I've read - regardless of the method of treatment - lists the possible side effects but ends with 'but you'll be fine'. So, we expect to feel bad for a couple of weeks and then get on with our lives close to normal.
A few weeks ago a study came out showing that men that have had prostate surgery are deeply regretful about 2 years after the fact. The medical community kind of tossed it's hands in the air and said that the patients were 'overly optimistic' regarding their recovery and the life-ling impacts of the surgery. They couldn't understand why the men aren't getting the message.
Life After Prostate Surgery Worse Than Men Expect
Well, that's because side effects are downplayed. In the literature AND in the physicians office.
Over-promised and under-delivered. That's a recipe for dissatisfaction.
I'm still glad I had the radiation. I think.
I guess we will have to see where the next couple of years takes me.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Whine, whine, whine
Okay, I think I've been very patient. Hardly whiny at all.
Mostly.
Ask my wife Suzanne. She will tell you that's one of the first signs of me feeling better.
But now that I can no longer ignore the fact that it is fall - after a full three weeks of summer here in the northwest - it's ticking me off that I can't ride my bike.
I know, I know . . . small price to pay and all that.
But my motorcycle is what keeps me sane. Honestly. Riding is a form of therapy - a zen-like state of machine melded with the forces of physics into a symphony of gravity and acceleration. Punctuated only by teen-age girls on cell phones.
It has now been a little over three months since my posterior graced the saddle, and I'm gettin' a tad twitchy.
I know that I still have a couple of weeks to go before my butt hits the seat. And as I watch the days get shorter and the temps fall, it feels like I'm in a race for those last few magical days of non-rainy riding.
In the meantime I plan to start back on my regular swim schedule. The local pool has been closed for a bit and now that it's all shiny and clean, it's time to get back to my other home - the water. I won't be back to full workouts for a while, but I know swimming will be a boon to my soul as well as my body.
But still, it's not like a few hours riding around Mt. Rainier, or hopping over Chinook pass. Twisting and turning up those hills with Suzanne in the seat behind me, stopping for lunch or a picnic beside a quiet river - that's what's required to make me feel . . . normal.
That's really all the therapy I need.
Mostly.
Ask my wife Suzanne. She will tell you that's one of the first signs of me feeling better.
But now that I can no longer ignore the fact that it is fall - after a full three weeks of summer here in the northwest - it's ticking me off that I can't ride my bike.
I know, I know . . . small price to pay and all that.
But my motorcycle is what keeps me sane. Honestly. Riding is a form of therapy - a zen-like state of machine melded with the forces of physics into a symphony of gravity and acceleration. Punctuated only by teen-age girls on cell phones.
It has now been a little over three months since my posterior graced the saddle, and I'm gettin' a tad twitchy.
I know that I still have a couple of weeks to go before my butt hits the seat. And as I watch the days get shorter and the temps fall, it feels like I'm in a race for those last few magical days of non-rainy riding.
In the meantime I plan to start back on my regular swim schedule. The local pool has been closed for a bit and now that it's all shiny and clean, it's time to get back to my other home - the water. I won't be back to full workouts for a while, but I know swimming will be a boon to my soul as well as my body.
But still, it's not like a few hours riding around Mt. Rainier, or hopping over Chinook pass. Twisting and turning up those hills with Suzanne in the seat behind me, stopping for lunch or a picnic beside a quiet river - that's what's required to make me feel . . . normal.
That's really all the therapy I need.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
A rant on life by Dennis Leary
Ran across this first thing this morning and I thought I would share:
“Most people think life sucks, and then you die. Not me. I beg to differ. I think life sucks, then you get cancer, then your dog dies, your wife leaves you, the cancer goes into remission, you get a new dog, you get remarried, you owe ten million dollars in medical bills but you work hard for thirty-five years and you pay it back and then -- one day -- you have a massive stroke, your whole right side is paralyzed, you have to limp along the streets and speak out of the left side of your mouth and drool but you go into rehabilitation and regain the power to walk and the power to talk and then -- one day -- you step off a curb at Sixty-seventh Street, and BANG you get hit by a city bus and then you die. Maybe.”
--Dennis Leary
“Most people think life sucks, and then you die. Not me. I beg to differ. I think life sucks, then you get cancer, then your dog dies, your wife leaves you, the cancer goes into remission, you get a new dog, you get remarried, you owe ten million dollars in medical bills but you work hard for thirty-five years and you pay it back and then -- one day -- you have a massive stroke, your whole right side is paralyzed, you have to limp along the streets and speak out of the left side of your mouth and drool but you go into rehabilitation and regain the power to walk and the power to talk and then -- one day -- you step off a curb at Sixty-seventh Street, and BANG you get hit by a city bus and then you die. Maybe.”
--Dennis Leary
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