So, I have Cancer.

[basalte]

Good to hear it ! Dan

[gospeedv8]

fantastic news

[Kimbers]

Great news for you too Malc.

[benjamincalleja]

Kimbers (my iPhone wants to auto correct that to either skimers or scrim ears lol) that's tops news mate. Stoked all is well.

[USAndretti42]

Mind you, there are those over here who protest against HPV vaccinations for young girls as they say it will encourage them to have sex.  And Michele Bachmann suggested it could lead to mental damage.

[Clive59]

My daughter probably got Juvenile Arthritis from her HPV vaccination, so yes, one in a million or whatever, but I have been told that it was released too early before being fully tested and checked. But to encourage sex? Don't think that would make any difference either.

[Chris315]

I've only just seen this link as I'm new to TLF but good luck with everything, I hope it all goes well and wish you a speedy recovery.

 

Chris

[molemot]

Moley's perfectly purulent prostate.....

 

Last Monday was the six monthly blood test...today was The Results....had to be on the 27th, didn't it?? Everything in my family happens on the 27th..... To recap the past results.....the PSA went down to a minimum of 0.17 in July 2010. Since then, it has gone (in 6 monthly intervals) 0.19, 0.38...then down to 0.35....0.51, 0.71, and the last on July 2013 was 1.1.... At that point I began to be concerned; it had been trundling along quite nicely, then it increases by 0.16...0.2...0.3..... A solidly upward trend. So I wasn't too surprised when today's effort turned out to be 1.80...an increase of  0.70, or more than twice the previous increase.
 
Not good......but no way to tell if it's that bad, yet, either!!! The testosterone level has gone to somewhere in the normal range (which is huge, being 6.1 to 27 nmol/L...mine was 6.2 at the last measurement, which was 6 months ago) and that will increase the PSA level in any event. Some concern in the Camp of the Druids....decides Need New Scan. So they are arranging a CT scan with a radioactive tracer...sometime in the next two weeks, they will send the appointment details....followed by a Patient Review and another appointment on the 24th Feb....at which point we may know something more. The scan is supposed to reveal if there are any nasty bits thriving in the remains of the irradiated and hacked about prostate...or, much worse, lurking elsewhere in Moley's ample anatomy.

That puts paid to my Plan of scuttling off southwards and seeing out the rest of the winter in the luxurious comfort of my draughty two Kw fanheatered workshop..... BLAST!!! Back to everything being up in the air and prospects uncertain.....personally I shall continue to ignore it as much as possible, given that it seems I am to be subjected to yet more Witchdoctoring and Magic Machinery.....watch this space!!!

Edited January 27, 2014 by molemot

[Bibs]

My Dad found out he had prostate cancer a fortnight ago and had his prostate removed (by a robotic procedure) last week.

[andydclements]

Hope all turns out well, after all the PSA is an indicator, not the definitive diagnosis tool.

Waiting to hear how my Chiropodist is, he was due to have had surgery on the week after I last spoke with him and he was hoping to be re-starting work early 2014. I'm not concerned about him re-starting work to look after my tootsies, just that he's OK.

[molemot]

Bibs....hope all goes well for your Dad. When I was diagnosed, it was too late for surgery..hence the irradtiation and hormones...it's worked OK for the past seven years, and no treatment at all for the past 3 years. As Andy says, PSA is an indicator...other than that, I am completely asymptomatic.

[rogerch]

Well I'mm lucky,I had my final clearence this morning.

[Kimbers]

Congrats Roger.

 

Sorry to hear that Bibs. Like my Cancer, it's positive that it's operable so I hope he keeps positive and that everything is ok going forward.

 

John, it's horrible when you are unsure and waiting. When I had the Chemo treatment (which was directly applied in the form of a chemical burn) it took 3 months and then another 2 to see if it came back, which it did. So I know how you feel mate. I really do hope the final results are more positive and you are free to disappear south and get out of this bloody weather!

[iainskea]

Hey Tony, just saw this post - had no idea what you went through, so very sorry I wasn't around for the last couple of years to add my best wishes. Good to hear you are going well.

Moreover, a great initiative to share individual stories amongst supportive friends. Heartfelt wishes to everyone.

Iain.

[Kimbers]

Thanks Iain.

 

I think it very important to discuss these things openly. believe me, I'm not doing it because I want people to feel sorry for me or to get attention (I do that well enough anyway ). It's all about knowledge. Knowledge is king when it comes to Cancer. Catch it early and it's normally operable and survivable. Unfortunately I had never heard of my Cancer before so didn't know what to look for. Now everyone who has read this (and my FB page from the time) knows and I truly hope it saves someone's life one day.

 

That's the problems with rare forms of cancer, no one has heard of them, the signs and effects.

 

Also, no one should have to suffer in silence and I am always happy to discuss my positive experiences and the effects it had on my life with people who need a lift. Or listen to those who want to talk about it and their worries.

 

HPV has a lot to answer for and they are currently saying that it is and could be the cause of many more cancers that we weren't sure of how they started (Bladder cancer is a perfect example). 

[comem47]

My wife and I are flying down to see her dad in FL this Thursday for the weekend. So far he's a successful prostate cancer survivor. He did have prostate surgery in the distant past but the cancer returned and last year he was a test study patient in one of those treatments where your own cells are removed, treated, and returned back to target the cancer and so far it seems hugely successful (can't detect anything now). Sorry that I'm not up on the specific details but I'll find out more this weekend. I do know that as being part of the study the very expensive treatments were free (I think normally something like $90K US) I believe the drug was fast tracked with the success levels in the study and is now available as "Provenge" (if my wife has it correct). He feels like he won the lottery after all this time, but I sure wish far less money went in to fighting overseas wars and looking after the tax breaks for lobbyists and politicians and more to address health and jobs/poverty issues for the masses in this country.

[molemot]

I'm with you there, Bob....sticking noses in overseas for no good purpose, then pulling out again after years of blood, toil, tears, money and sweat...leaving the situation worse than it was to start with. Hope your father-in-law continues to thrive...cursed walnut sized thing, ridiculous to be bought low by some damned gland, isn't it?(!)

[Kimbers]

I believe, bob it's part of the Stem cell research thingy. My friend had it as well. Good luck and I hope everything is ok for him!

[molemot]

Life has it's ups and downs.....

 

 

 

Yesterday I did 5 lines in the Euromillions lottery...online, since I'm in the UK and could. £10 worth.....as I did it online, they send you an email if you win. So....this morning I trundle downstairs ...find the mobile phone and...lo!....I have a missed call. No number. Sod them, then. After a bit, I remembered the lottery.........and I said to my cousin Tony "Maybe that was the Lottery types telling me I am now richer than Croesus...." Rubbish, of course.....but enough to prompt getting online. So I logged on..and got up the emails...and there in the inbox was an email from the Lottery.

Ah.


Blimey.


So I called Tony over....and told him I had an email from the lottery people....he didn't believe it....until he saw the screen!! So I clicked on it...and up came an email telling me that they had some good news for me, if I logged on to my account.

We were stunned. Strewth.....can this be?????? So I clicked on the link.....and had to click on the "enable link" thing....clicked the link AGAIN and finally got to the account login page. What's my blasted PASSWORD???? Found my aide memoire...and logged in...and I'D WON!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

£89.60


Ah well, better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. A small bit of good news to counteract the Marsden Misery.... On examination, one of the lines had matched 4 of the 5 numbers, but none of the Stars...had I got all 5, it would have been £56K!!
I'm still recovering from the emotional rollercoaster ...... Phew!!!!! Nobody won the Big One...so roll on Friday.....£56,000,000....

[basalte]

I know the feeling ! When I was 10 I won the fancy dress competition at our school fete. What a great feeling !

 

The late celebrity fete-opener guest Marjorie Proops gave me a giant plastic comb as a prize. I had dressed up as a witch (the gender thing didn`t seem an issue) carrying a giant papier mache carrot which my brother had made from chicken wire and newspaper. I had also used the giant carrot to try and impress the princess in the school play "the Golden Goose" (...of course she was most impressed by said goose and not my carrot...story of my life !) 

 

PS Sorry for off-topicness, just hope it raised a laugh !

Edited January 29, 2014 by basalte

[Kimbers]

I haven't checked my Lottery for months, I just buy a new 4 week ticket and stick them away. Last time I did that I checked after 4 months and had won!!! A tenner....pfft!

[molemot]

Today I was at the Royal Marsden for the results of the latest investigations into my rotting prostate....after the radiation and the hormones and seven years after diagnosis. It hasn't been a triumphant day, but neither has it been a total disaster. To start with, I produced my graph of the PSA readings and told Prof. Dearnaley's senior acolyte that, extrapolating from the graph, my best estimate of the current PSA reading was 2.15.... He said the true reading was 2.2, so I was close enough! This makes the graph hyperbolic and charging off rapidly towards the stratosphere...chizchiz... Then we got to the PET scan...and I had a look at that, too. It shows a definite tumour growing in the bottom left hand corner of the irradiated remains of the prostate....and a very small shadowy thing at the top of the right humerus. Had I ever damaged that bone?? So I told him of my quarrel with a pile of concrete blocks and the resultant ripping apart of the right shoulder, with me ending up with 1/2 of a rotator cuff and a torn axiliary nerve, which took 6 months to regrow. He thought that the anomaly could well be damage resulting from that mishap....let us hope he's right.

Then we discussed What to Do Next.....there are two options. Firstly, surgery...and tear the blessed thing out by the roots, hopefully to effect a Complete Cure. Disadvantages....many. To start with, it's not a particularly successful operation, the chances of everything resulting in A Cure are significantly less than 50%....conversely, the chances of ending up urinally and/or fecally incontinent are significantly greater than 50% ... and surgery would be complicated by the previous radiotherapy which will have bonded the tissue into a shrunken solid lump which resists cutting...and thus increases the risk to the associated organs from the knife. Added to which I'm a fat bastard and they typically don't do invasive surgery well. I opined that I was not a fan of elective surgery, after the trans-urethral resection I had, and the resulting misery for at least 6 months as the body got back to the exact same place it had been at beforehand, with no quantifiable gain to me....I did it as they wanted tissue samples from the prostate for their study, and the results had shown that there were still cancer cells left in the prostate...so I haven't been taken by surprise by this. In any event, a rapid decision was not needed, I could have 6 months to mull it over and decide at the next consultation. He did say that, if there was going to be an operation, now was the time to do it...and if I decided to have the surgeon do his worst, then they would conduct an in depth investigation of the right arm and the anomaly....as - had the cancer spread there - the operation would be a waste of time. He said that if he were in my position, then he wouldn't go down the surgery route.

Option Two is to Do Nothing....just allow things to develop until either I get adverse symptoms or the PSA and scans indicate Something Had To Be Done....after which the hormone therapy would be reintroduced and that would continue until either I had slipped off the twig from some other cause, or the tumour had become hormone refractory and the hormones stopped working. He reckoned that 5 years was pretty much guaranteed, 10 years was a reasonable expectation and 20 years not beyond possibility. So, taking 10 years, that would make me 78.....wot.....78??? What chance do I have of getting there anyway??? Especially when I always expected to be a smoking hole in the ground before I hit 40. The hormone therapy is systemic, so it would work against any manifestation of the tumour anywhere in the body..and starting it straight away would only mean that the stuff would stop working sooner, as well. Back at the start of all this stuff, Prof. Dearnaley had said that there was a solid chance that I would have to be on hormones permanently.

SO....there we are. Not dead yet and with no immediate prospect of shuffling off...so I'm about to sort out getting back to Mole End Cottage and continuing with Life, the Universe, and Everything!!!

[mdw]

Not great news but at least they seem to have given you some time scales and what to do when list.  You seem to have a sound grip on it  and  none of us really know whats round the corner.   I know I am a lot less sure of things  and life in general since my wife started her twice yearly trips up there.  Best of luck. 

[cbclotus]

Hi John.You bought my seats....Great meeting you.Take care. Mike

[molemot]

And excellent seats they are, too, Mike.....a lot better than the manky old things they replaced....nice and comfy over several thousand miles, 450 miles in one go at the longest stretch!

 

Everything in life is balanced on a knife edge; one never really appreciates this until something major happens, then one can look back and see the points where it was all teetering about. Personally, nationally, internationally, even walking down the stairs and nearly falling over the cat. We have illusions of safety and pay no attention to reality, most of the time. Usually, when something 'orrid happens, you can look back and see the hints of impending disaster that you ignored. As my late chum Dennis used to say..."you've got to listen to what life's trying to tell you, John!!" I'd been ignoring the subtle hints for a year or so before I finally got myself diagnosed....just in time to avoid the full impact of the worst possible situation. Now it seems I can have a good few years more of pleasurable tinkering in the workshop, dispose of more good red wine, extemporise a few more blues and put some more miles on the trusty Lotus.....business as usual, then!

Edited February 25, 2014 by molemot