Last appointment of the day: haircut by Emily. I’ve known her 30 years and look forward to our conversations. Earlier, managed to sandwich GED tutoring between a radioactive tracer injection and a whole-body bone scan. All those activities were on today’s walk: I choose to live as normally as possible.
Category: Cancer
Steps to New Options
Crossed an icy Mississippi on my walk to the University of Minnesota where I signed paperwork to participate in a Phase 3 prostate cancer clinical trial. Grateful for the lovely walk, grateful for promising treatment options.
Monthly Drug Run
Today’s the day for my monthly drug run (meds). Metro Transit does a remarkable job keeping the buses running in all kinds of weather.
Delaying Tactics
Today was the day for my quarterly labs. The tumor marker is slowly rising, so I’ll be discussing this with my oncologist this week. The longer I can keep this somewhat at bay with medications, the more new treatment options will become available to me.
Fallen Leaves
My monthly drug run, / Walking past the county morgue, / Leaves corralled by wind.
Monthly Drug Run
Today was my monthly “drug run” to a pharmacy about 10 miles away by bicycle. Picked up a med at Hy-Vee for $184; at my local Walgreens it’s $2,754. On the way, stopped to take in the slow decay of the former Fruen Mill.
Pills and Hot Flashes
As I do at the start of every day, took a small handful of Abiraterone and Dexamethasone. Later, at Methodist Hospital, got my quarterly Lupron shot and chatted with my oncologist. As the tumor marker graph (below) shows, it’s working, at least for now: it’s pointing towards zero, which is a good thing. I don’t… Continue reading Pills and Hot Flashes
PET/CT in my Pocket
That’s amazing… The hospital medical records system was down, so I accessed the Mayo Clinic’s system from my phone and brought up 100’s of PET/CT images. A Radiation Oncologist paged through and zoomed the images and determined radiation treatment is not recommended for now.
PET/CT Imaging
Without leaving home, went on a visual journey through my body, guided by a Mayo oncologist. Like traffic lights, stopped at two bright red lymph nodes, signifying prostate cancer cells. Two additional drugs should help for a while. I’m grateful.
Trip To The Mayo
It was a PET scan, but I closed my eyes and pretended I was on a lie-flat flying somewhere good. When the machine ejected me, I was still in Rochester, MN.