Prostate Cancer III

I had my three month and six month cancer check-up and so far everything seems okay.  My PSA at there months was down to 1.6 and at six months it was down to 1.5.  We would all like to see it lower, and it may continue to decrease but maybe not.

I was not the least bit impressed with my urologist and the three month check-up.  He couldn't find the results of the PSA test so he asked me what it was.  I had been on the website so I knew and told him and that was about it.  He didn't examine anything, ask me how I was feeling or anything.  He did ask if I had any questions so I asked him if some of the conditions I was experiencing were permanent.  His reply was "well, they pretty much fried your prostate so you have to expect that".  I can't help but think he is a little put off that we didn't accept his offer to surgically remove it.

I was cleared to procedde with submitting papers to serve a mission, so we made appointments to have our mission physicals and begin that process.

At six months I saw Dr. Richards, the radiation oncologist.  He was very concerned, friendly and I really felt like I had been to the doctor when we were finished.  We told him we had a mission call and he was happy for us and gave me the paper work I would need to get PSA tests done in Guam.

I guess there is not any way to know if your cancer is cured other than the test of time.  If the PSA remains low then the cancer is in remission.  If it starts to climb then they didn't get it all.  You just have to monitor that level fairly closely for a while and see what happens.  Dr. richards seens quite confident that the treatments have done their job and I can only hope he is right.