A Year Has Passed

It's been a year since I started treatment, which began with Androgen Deprivation Therapy and then was followed with 28 rounds of external beam radiation, 54 Palladium 103 Seeds and 10 more radiation treatments. Then we wait . . . to see whether the PCa was local and has been eradicated or whether some of the cells snuck outside the Prostate and are travelling to other parts of the body. At this point, the PSA test is the best indicator of what's happening (I had the Prostascint scan earlier - but it's not all that accurate and could travel to The Netherlands for a Combidex scan, but all of the Doc's tell me that there's nothing to be gained at this point from the Combidex scan).

Each PSA test then has the potential to be a dramatic event. But I'll be trying hard not to let that happen.

On February 18th I visited with Dr. Myers in Charlottesville. He reviewed all of my tests over the past six months - including the two most recent PSA tests (<0.01 since November). His words whizzed past my head like a stray bullet in North Philadelphia . . . "there's a better than 90% chance that the cancer won't return". Two hours later, sitting in the Charlottesville airport, the magnitude of his comment hit me.