Anyone 'cured' prostate cancer with....

[buzzmobile]

The sunrise yesterday seems to have matched your 2 steps back day. It was less than glorious.

The sun tried to make the scene but only briefly.

I fished a lot more than I caught. This little bonnethead shark was fun and he tested the drag for me. I won. I released but I did not kiss him on the lips.


The storms forecast to arrive after 2PM took the express route and arrived before 10AM with the rumble of thunder. Thunder on the beach is not a good thing.

Today is that tomorrow with the positivity attached. I hope so.

[Gypsy Nirvana]

- Good to know that you made it thru the procedure without complications so far moose - its just a case of rest and recuperation now I suppose - so hopefully not such a long time - before you are allowed to go home -

[moose eater]

A big thank you to all. Very heart warming to read your thoughts. Seriously.

I hadn't felt up to replying earlier today, and had neglected the musical 'gifts' (btw, trich, thanks for the very nice blues/R&B; good stuff, and hope to embody the sentiments.

Thank you, buzz. Hope fishing was good. Salutes at sun-up; positive images.

Cudme & tobedetermined; yep, there's been some good folks post here, and you're both among them.

Today was a 2-steps-back kinda' day; pieces of info that got blurred, causing some frustration already set in motion by 3 (out of 3) businesses I had transactions pending with, failed to update the status (to varying degrees of success/failure), inaccurate info in my medical charts (not at ALL uncommon; most folks who view their med charts in detail, find all KINDS of erroneous crap in them), all added up to doing others' responsibilities when I feel ill-equipped (energy-wise), and currently have an even lower (than normal) tolerance for incompetence & bullshit.

Innards are still quite sensitive but (overall) improved. Getting up in bed doesn't 'undo' me the way it had.

However, when I drink as little as 11.5 oz. of protein shake or H2O, the (hopefully just strained) diaphragm in the area near/between my stomach and heart gets a mildly pained and chilled sensation. I've successfully had 3 bowel movements between yesterday (1) and today (2), and have been eating stool softeners to make THAT happen. But the stools are much darker than before surgery, which has me concerned, as my blood count had been dropping at variable rates for the last 4 blood draws before they discharged me, and I'm well aware of what this COULD mean (I've got little interest in going back into surgery at this time; understandably, I suspect).

So we're monitoring the symptoms, and crossing fingers that there's other explanations offering more benign causes.

Bliss, this is not, but hoping for green grass & high tides down the road, in the near future.

Trying to not go back in to see any Docs until next Tuesday, when we're tentatively scheduled to remove my catheter and drain tube, with the position of the drain tube being ONE of the possible, more benign explanations for the diaphragm phenomenon.

So I'm biding my time, being a grumpy arse, and waiting until next week, when we hopefully yank tubes, and a forum member has mentioned getting me down to the Arboretum, to see the cherry blossoms, and walk in the grass, or something other than urban concrete.

Things at home are reportedly going well, with all 3 pups finally abandoning waiting by the front door for us, and instead sleeping in my younger son's room, though still waiting 'til late to get there.

My plants that will provide ongoing future extract meds are getting healthy in my absence with just H2O (better mix), but will be right AT ready for 5-gallon pots immediately after our return, among other tasks, including an immediate THC-A extraction.

I'd do more pain control than I am, for both sleep & pain, but this is the wrong surgery to induce constipation with. So I'm taking ONE 500 mg acetaminophen every 6 hours now (my mother died from an OD of the stuff; they'd had me on 4,000 mg/day of that shit, but I feel rather protective of my liver and kidneys), I ABSOLUTELY won't eat 600 - 800 mg Ibuprofen (I'm fond of my stomach lining & may have some continued internal bleeding), and am taking ONE light-weight 5 mg Oxycodone at night, though may or may not tonight.

That's a rather thorough report.

Thanks again, all of you, for the kind thoughts & words. Tomorrow may be more positive...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marvin Gaye, Live in Belgium, 1981

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SymakbzeKsA

[trichrider]

you're gonna be fine.
you're already sounding better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdZB8NM0szI

[tobedetermined]

I hope you heal well from your medical adventures.

Thank you. This was ‘only’ a lumbar decompression. So another scar in my lower back, beside the one from 3 years ago. The creeping scrooge of stenosis, but it ain’t creeping as slowly as I’d like.

My prostate scare came 20 years ago. I had the core sample test - which was the only time I have ever fainted btw – because my poor miss-aligned brother was diagnosed with aggressive PC. He fought it fiercely – on top of HIV - for 10 years, but it eventually won.

The humility of aging and disability.

Now, we REALLY understand how easy it is to become that ranting angry old man who lives next door.

[buzzmobile]

Rest up, moose eater . I'm going to celebrate your survival with a trip to the coast and I am taking rods and reels. I will salute the sunrise for you @ 7:11A EDT. Leaving in 3...2...1....

[cudme]

Glad this procedure is behind you moose, and good wishes to all getting sliced and diced. my computer ran out of battery yesterday but i was sending all the good juju i can muster. still am. wonderful to hear about the silver lining of meeting a like soul and connecting.
weezard i hear you on recuperating for the dog. mine frets on me in the morning if ive slept past dawn.
much aloha to all and its really nice to see all the love.

[moose eater]

The day after is usually roughest.
I had to fly back from Oahu to the Big Island the next morning.
By the time I got here I was bleeding into the cath bag.
Carried the P-bag around in a cloth shopping bag for a while as my urethra healed.
When they pull the cath, they inject sterile water directly up your bladder.
If they get back as much as they put in, it's clear, and you can start and stop the stream, you will be good to go, or not "go", your choice.
And don't panic on the reptile dysfunction. That can take months to improve.
Full recovery actually takes about 6 months, but you should be mostly functional in less than 30 days.
What helped most was my dog.
She looked so worried that I had to recuperate, yah?

When the lab report arrives; Think negative. Negative margins.
Perineural invasion and positive margins told me that a recurrence was likely.
Took about 14 months to recur and the doubling rate was alarming
I was looking at a 6 year span.
Started graphing the growth rate, then read about RSO.
Started with a "grain of rice" size
and my doubling rate slowed to about 18 months.
Started ramping up the dosage going for a gram per day. that was difficult.
At high dosage ~750 mg. the doubling rate worsened to about 12 months!
That's when I realized that super high dosage was counter productive. Dropped it a fraction for each blood test.
Am taking ~ 140 mg. now and the D. R. has climbed to 2.5 years.
Means cancer is no longer an issue for me.

A friend of mine has recently presented with lung cancer.
She has run out of chemo options so I'm sending her some oil.
Will keep y'all posted on her progress.

Thanks, Weez.

Biggest hassle with the cath bag is running tubing, and timing the next rest room available to drain it.... during COVID, when lots of places limit access to restrooms.

Hoping the recovery goes as smoothly as the surgery seems to have.

I miss my pups, but my youngest son is tending them, the house, and bedding/veggie starts until we return.

Lyft driver from the hospital to the room we're in seemed to hit every bump, and inertia in cornering sent my guts who-knows-where. I want to be home SOON.

We'll be plotting PSA changes. I'll be doing a THC-A extraction when I get back home, which I recall your planning to use as an alternative, as well.

Hope your friend's recovery goes well.

Where we're staying is a place primarily for cancer patients & their families. Fist day here, a vibrant young woman in a colorful head scarf, with no hair (chemo) rolled out of the elevator, life beaming in her eyes, and driving her wheel chair like she was Mario Andretti. There are some brave and vibrant folks here who've chosen to fight hard for their lives, but still smiling broadly. That, too, has been humbling. Getting taught things by folks I've never met.

BTW, surgery was EARLY Tuesday A.M. I'm plotting the hours of recovery now, envisioning the healing process that is, for now, invisible.

Thanks again.

[moose eater]

Good luck going forward. I am recuperating from a week old slice & dice myself, so I can directly commiserate.

Some blueberry bubble hash I made a month ago is my morning to bedtime friend at the moment.

Thanks. Yep, waiting for the calendar to flip pages, and the body to do what it needs to, but not being ablee to see the progress leaves lots of room to guess what is causing which twinges.

The NP said no supplements, CBD, THC extract, etc., for a week. The surgeon was impressed with the readiness with which my skin bleeds, & for now I'm attributing the elasticity and ample blood supply to all of the above beneficials.

I could take walks (which I need to do anyway) but I'm tethered to a catheter & a wound drainage bulb, so, thus far, hourly walks around the room we're in is a lot easier (and safer) than changing out my night-time catheter bag for a leg bag. It's taught me greater empathy for those who live this way (or with more appendages than I have) for the rest of their lives. The humility of aging and disability.

I hope you heal well from your medical adventures.

I received numerous notes of support today & last night, via email, from long-ago surrogate Canadian 'family' from the alternative school in the Yukon Territory. Lots of cause for tears of appreciation, re. good folks from long ago and far away. But I'm already burned out on lying on my back in a bed. Looking forward to this phase being in the rear-view, what ever the next move might be.

Thanks again for your kindness..

[Weezard]

The day after is usually roughest.
I had to fly back from Oahu to the Big Island the next morning.
By the time I got here I was bleeding into the cath bag.
Carried the P-bag around in a cloth shopping bag for a while as my urethra healed.
When they pull the cath, they inject sterile water directly up your bladder.
If they get back as much as they put in, it's clear, and you can start and stop the stream, you will be good to go, or not "go", your choice.
And don't panic on the reptile dysfunction. That can take months to improve.
Full recovery actually takes about 6 months, but you should be mostly functional in less than 30 days.
What helped most was my dog.
She looked so worried that I had to recuperate, yah?

When the lab report arrives; Think negative. Negative margins.
Perineural invasion and positive margins told me that a recurrence was likely.
Took about 14 months to recur and the doubling rate was alarming
I was looking at a 6 year span.
Started graphing the growth rate, then read about RSO.
Started with a "grain of rice" size
and my doubling rate slowed to about 18 months.
Started ramping up the dosage going for a gram per day. that was difficult.
At high dosage ~750 mg. the doubling rate worsened to about 12 months!
That's when I realized that super high dosage was counter productive. Dropped it a fraction for each blood test.
Am taking ~ 140 mg. now and the D. R. has climbed to 2.5 years.
Means cancer is no longer an issue for me.

A friend of mine has recently presented with lung cancer.
She has run out of chemo options so I'm sending her some oil.
Will keep y'all posted on her progress.

[tobedetermined]

Good luck going forward. I am recuperating from a week old slice & dice myself, so I can directly commiserate.

Some blueberry bubble hash I made a month ago is my morning to bedtime friend at the moment.

[moose eater]

Thanks everyone who lent supportell presence in their bnes

My guts are still jumbled a bit. Losing over 50 lbs, then letting them pump air into my abdominal cavity, created a 'first' for the surgeon. When he spoke with my wife (and later with me), he continued to express surprise at the amount of skin that popped up like a tall tent when he 'inflated me', which apparently caused him to do some serious recalculations and efforts as to how to get beneath my pelvic bone from that steep of an angle of approach.

Menus? My gut says I'm starved, but still trying to jump-start the innards, getting them off of vacation, and back to their jobs, so thus far (here at our room since last night, as I was just discharged yesterday, after 1.5 days in a 'day bed') it's been protein shakes, a protein bar, herbal tea, lots of water, one narrow, round, thin slice of baggette with a bit of smoked sockeye salmon (proteins and oils), and some grape tomatoes (lycopene, maybe) .

Can't recommend this affair as any sort of recreational pursuit.

So far the surgeon thinks there were n surprises; the lymph glands he stole felt soft, as though there was nothing inside that had developed. He took more from the right side than from the left, as the cancer we KNOW of, is on the right. Likewise, he stated the prostate felt like there was nothing hard/developed contained in the left side of the PG.

But to some degree, that's all feel-good stuff for now; all that material went to the pathology lab to discern of there's anything in there that escaped human touch or view of the naked eye, and I'm pretty much aware of the outcomes in thousands of studies of patients similar to myself, where 85% had microscopic cancer cells present in their ones after radical prostatectomy, in similar time frames as mine was completed.

That's not to say they had cancer, as for most, the cells had not yet organized into anything Darth Vader-ish. It is to say that if I'm to be serious about preventing recurrence, 'll likely be on some semblance of an anti-cancer diet and regimen for long time; like maybe for ever. Not all bad.should hear back within 4-7 days re. what they find.

Nurses at the floor I was at were incredible; understaffed by my observations, and running almost constantly, with a ranging of personalities, but all of them seemed adept and dedicated. A couple times I waited a couple hours to have a drainage bulb emptied and re-compressed, but it got done.

I woke up from surgery benefiting form the part of the anesthetic that induces some degree of amnesia. Seemed I'd just gone to sleep, and they were telling me the 4-hour procedure was completed. Roll-through cancer treatment. Surprisingly little pain immediately afterward, though that later poked its head up, and is with me now.

They gave zero opiates in the hospital after the procedure was over with. Tylenol and Ibuprofen only. Though they discharged me with a very limited amount of oxy, and last night it served well, though I try to avoid it, and am taking a fairly regular dose of stool softeners, as any bearing down to have a bowel movement at this time can result in all sorts of problems.

After the initial surgery, the bandaging around the drain tube flooded quite badly with bleeding, saturating 4 impressive sets of THICK gauze, loading up the bed, part of the toilet, and more. I have to admit I was more than mildly alarmed, but it seems to be finding its way and calming down.

MY overnight in the hospital, I met an amazing nurse who attempts organic gardening, and was nothing shy of a source of grace and sunshine. We had many wonderful conversations in the wee hours of the night; humanity, gardens, dogs, and lots more. She is another who will forever be cast in my mind as a stellar example of what we can be, and of graciousness. wish her the very best. They need to pay people like her more. A most wonderful person.

Back in the room we're staying at, taking care of untended business this morning. Warm air and heavy melting of LOTS of snow set in after our departure from home so my son's been taking care of that; draining the driveway, etc. Likewise, a huge thanks for the persons taking care of my garden.

A huge thank you to the forum member who brought me supplies I was in limited possession of. I owe them.

I need to lay back down now. MY guts are subject to gravity, and they seem to be rebelling re. my telling them to stay where they're supposed to be.

Thanks everyone.

[buzzmobile]

Billygoat tails and rice? Lizard lips with gravy? Pickled ducksfoot?

Maybe a pair of geoduck?

[Gypsy Nirvana]

yeah - what's on the menu?

'Breaker-Breaker - West-Bound-Bed-Bug - Gotcha Ears On C'mon' -

[buzzmobile]

Someone has been reading this thread.

What's for breakfast, moose eater ?