Alrighty Friends and Neighbors. I’m going to detail my journey here from start to current. I’m a big information sharing junkie. Stay tuned for the finish as even I don’t know what that will be.
First off of course, FUCK CANCER!!!
There, with that out of the way, let’s dive right in 🙂
Primary Care Physician
Over the past three years, since I started Medicare Advantage with United Healthcare, I’ve actually had a regular Primary Care Physician. I’ve gone in for yearly checkups and been admonished about my bloodwork and general health. Overall I’m better than most but I could be better.
This year, I asked to see a dermatologist as I’d last gone years back and lost a small bit of skin off my shoulder. I wanted to get a checkup, which turned out to be just fine.
My doctor also recommended I see a Urologist as my PSA over the past 3 years was 5.9, 5.9, 6.0 where the range is 1 to 4.
Urologist Exams
Made the appointment and went to see the doctor. We had a discussion about overall health, he did a digital exam; which is the greased up finger up the butt. We all have to do it, it’s for our benefit. But of course it’s not comfortable. My prostate appeared at least from touch, to be in good shape. No nodules or abnormalities. He had to donate to a urine test and return for the results.
Following up and the doctor said he wanted to do a more indepth prostate exam. Mainly a slight massage of the prostate to have fluids appear in my urine and do a second urine test.
The results of that were serious enough that the doctor wanted me to get an MRI of the region around my prostate. A more targeted view. I headed over to Boulder Community Health and got the MRI. When I went in for a followup, I was told a lesion was found. This is a shadow on the MRI that isn’t there for the rest of the prostate, and there was a good chance (like 95%) that I had cancer in my prostate. Next up, a biopsy taken of the prostate.
Biopsy Doctor
This is a different doctor over in Superior. The procedure is I get a couple of anti-biotics; one taken 2 hours before the procedure, then one 24 hours after, and a third 48 hours after.
See, the doctor is going through the rectum to get the samples for the biopsy. Joy!
The day of the biopsy, the doctor had me lay on my left side, knees up, and injected several shots in the area to reduce the pain levels. Then inserted a cucumber sized laser, followed up with the tool that retrieves samples. He retrieve 17 samples from various places in the prostate. This gave him samples of the cancer but also validation samples to compare healthy tissue with the cancerous tissue. Feeling-wise, the “grab” was a bit of a loud pop. The actual extraction was kind of an internal itch feeling with one of them being a bit of an ouchie.
Urologist Discussion
Back to the Urologist. We had a discussion about the results of the biopsy. The range is generally 6 to 10 where 6 is the lowest severity. But there were two questions in the results where the two of us concluded it was more of a 6.5.
The doctor wanted my permission to do a gene test against the samples. Basically they would look for cancer markers in the samples and compare them against men going through the same situation. He’d provide the information to the Oncologist, who was the next person I was to see.
Oncologist
This is the moment of truth. Yes, I have prostate cancer. What’s the level and what’s the path forward.
The doctor was very patient with Jeanne and me, with our questions and how to make an informed decision on what to do.
As to the gene test, I was .7 on a scale of .5 to .9 so middle of the road.
There are four options.
- Do nothing. The current situation is early and low risk, so I could wait and deal with it later. The problem of course is it may get worse and have to be dealt with with more urgency and a lower chance of survival.
- Hormones. The doctor said this was probably a bad idea. Hormones didn’t seem to make a difference and since the idea is to reduce the testosterone level as cancer is fed by testosterone, it would fog the brain, make you sleepy, and depressed.
- Radiation. The procedure is relatively short, 28 sessions over 5 weeks and had good results.
- Removal of the Prostate. This would be the most invasive and could result is urinary tract issues and if a nerve is nicked, loss of the ability to get an erection.
The option that seemed to be best would be radiation treatment.
After the initial discussion, the doctor took me to an exam room and checked my lymph nodes to see if they were involved. No pain in any of them so no issue there. He then did a digital exam of the prostate and again, no nodules or abnormalities. Ready now for the preparation.
Radiation Preparation
There are three preparation tasks that need to be done before starting radiation treatment.
Stabilizing Platform
I need to head down to Greenwood Village to get fitted for a platform that keeps me secure when getting treatment. This is basically a mold around my ass and thighs which will keep me in place during the procedure. There will be three tiny tattoos on the belt line. One front and center and two on the hips at the rear.
Registration Markers
Next is a visit for the markers for the radiation gun. This is an insertion of three gold chips, about the size of a grain of rice, into the prostate. These will be used by the radiation gun to ensure a precise location where radiation will be focused. In addition, a small, 2″x2″ gel pad will be injected between the prostate and the wall of the large intestine.
Physicist Planning
The number will then be provided to a Physicist to create a program for the radiation gun so it will precisely target the cancerous cells and destroy them.
Radiation Treatment
This is the final result of all this. I’ll go to the Oncologist’s office every workday for 5 weeks. It’s about 10 minutes to prepare, 15 minutes under the gun, and probably 5 minutes to prepare to head out.
The gun itself is a high radiation gun. It’s fairly far away from me so I can interfere. The table itself moves in order for the registration markings to line up and the gun target the areas exactly. The gun rotates 360 degrees around my hip area. This reduces the amount of radiation anything other than the cancer receives. It’s still strong but the cancerous tissue will feel the full effect.
Side Effects
Per the Oncologist, side effects are minimal. An increase in the frequency of urination including a couple more times each night. This can last for a few months.
Final For Now
That’s it for now. The assistant will provide times I’m to do the prep work. I’ll head in either before work or at night on the way home. And crossing fingers, it’ll be clear. This will likely begin in January of 2026 so stay tuned.