A New Journey

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This bit is personal, and might not be suitable for everyone to read. You're warned.

A few months ago I noticed my bladder wouldn't entirely empty. Going to the bathroom at night became a bit of an issue. Like a guy, I put it off until I couldn't.

My doctor (Dr. W) confirmed my prostate was enlarged (yeah, figure that one out for yourself). He then ordered a blood test for PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen).

Doctors get concerned if the PSA is above 4.0 ng/mL. When I lived in Pearland in 2017, my PSA was 4.1. The urologist there said it wasn't worrisome, but we could keep an eye on it.

On May 11, 2021 my PSA was 97.35. I called him and asked if there was a misplaced decimal. He sent me to my (new) local urologist, Dr. C.

After ten days of Cipro, Dr. C tested it again. On May 27 my PSA tested as 103.2.

This is pretty much a guaranteed cancer in my prostate.

The first step in the ensuing process is analysis.

On June third I had a pelvic CT with contrast. Yeah, I had to drink some pretty yucky stuff and then they injected me before the scan. Everyone was very, very nice.

The results indicate metastasized cancer. (That's a hard word to spell.)

Oh, and in the intervening weeks I ran a moderate fever for days until I passed two kidney stones. Yeah, that was a first for me. I had no idea what was going on until after.

Dr C's PA sent me a note "Do you still have the stones? If so we can put an order into the lab so you could drop those off? Thank you!"

I responded as follows: 

"Nope. Didn't really know what I was looking at until after the fact. If I haven't passed them all, I'll capture the remaining, though to be honest, I hope I'm done with that!

(Really, who thinks of collecting something like that? And would you want to associate with such a person?)"

She understood.

I have a meeting scheduled with a panel of experts next Monday for more information on my case as we currently understand it. I have a bone scan scheduled for June 23rd and that will give us even better information.

And how does this affect Darling and I - our thoughts on the entire thing? I'll post that later.

It's a new journey. You're welcome to join me as I get personal.

Thanks for reading.

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