Has it been a fast 5 years

 Dr. Barnes came in this morning to my room and said, great news. Your numbers are still looking great. 

My PSA was .999

Some would say I'm prostate cancer free. It feels weird to say it, do not want to Jinx anything. I do not believe this journey is over, I'm sure at my 9 month appointment I will be nervous, I know I'll question every feeling I have in my body, whether it is sweats, tenderness, over peeing, under peeing. 

Stay on top of your PSA, its so easy. 

I'm smiling a little bit bigger today.

All I need to say is...

 0.97

Latest PSA

1.07, boom. Still crusing along.

Three years after Proton Therapy and I did get an MRI

my PSA jumped from 1.0 to 1.6 in 6 months so we decided to take an antibiotic, that lowered my PSA down to .9. We also did a pelvic MRI with contrast and the results were great. No cancer in the prostate, no cancer in the pelvic bone marrow, and no swell in the plevic lymph nodes. Gonna head back in 4 months for my next MRI.

It's been a year? And a PSA bump

So in the last year post treatment life has looked great. In April my psa was 1.0. This october at my regualar doctors physical it was 1.2, two weeks later at my semi annual appointment it was 1.6. That made every stop. Doctor asked if I was peeing more often, didn't think so, was it painful when I urinated and I said I did not think so, he thought it might be prostitis that is causing my psa to rise, I asked if Covid could cause it, he said he didn't think so (google covid and PSA, you will find that a case study of 91 guys showed that the PSA does spike during covid, and results of .6 increase lasted for 3 months, but I digress). So I went on a 1 week antibiotic and we retested 12 days later and bam it is back to .92. I am also scheduled for an MRI on sunday, but that may be cancelled. That's it, that is what has kept me stressed for two weeks. PS, the week leading up to my PSA's every 6 months is stressful as well. Other patients I talk to experience the same.

I like good news

I'll keep it simple. PSA today was 0.846, so in the range I've been in since treatment, except for the hanky panky spike spring of 2021. And going to go off of Flomax and see how I do. If I get off of Flomax I will be medicine free, which as I approach 50 seems pretty cool. Have a wonderful Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

No hanky panky... before a PSA test

So after my December test and the enthusiasm of my doctors I had a pretty good run for three months. Then I went in to get another PSA, this time it came back 1.3. Uh oh, have I made a mistake? Was it aggressive and wasn't treated soon enough?

Well I spoke with the oncologist and she asked a few questions. Have you exercised beforehand? In the last 72 hours have you … hanky panky? The answer was yes to both. So they say you can see a little bit of a rise with either one of those, so we rescheduled for another PSA 4 weeks later.

1. No hanky panky 72 hours before test (I went with the over)

2. No heavy workouts. I stopped swimming for a week leading up

3. No trauma to the area, not sure why I would do this, but yeah didn't go any where to get racked

So basically I went relaxation.

So the day came and the results came back 1.0, so basically where I was when Emory was high fiving me. The doctor explained more that do not fret too much on the movement here and there, that in the same blood sample I could get a .9 or a 1.1 reading. It's more the steady rise and jumps they will look out for, and don't come back for 6 months!

So this journey has been amazing. Ups downs, side ways. As I keep moving along I will keep updating you on my progress.