Treatment Begins

September 7 was the day that started treatment at MD Anderson.

MD Anderson is a major reason we moved back to Texas. As leaders in cancer research, they engage in the most cutting-edge technologies available for cancer treatment.

This first appointment was simply to meet the team, but we were especially interested in the main doctor assigned to me. Dr. Paul Corn introduced himself as a senior member of their cancer team. He understated his position. In fact, he is the Chair of the department.

He shook our hands, which immediately endeared him to Darling. He gave us a standard overview of MD Anderson and of prostate cancer. Most of the latter we knew already.

If men live long enough, they will almost certainly get prostate cancer. Most men die with prostate cancer, not from it. That sort of thing.

What struck me most about DrC (as I will now refer to him) was his humility. He did not appear as some god-inspired gift to medicine with all the answers, but rather as a doctor who still investigates how to best manage this specialty.

That’s a refreshing outlook compared to the doctor in Michigan. Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure the Dr in Michigan saves a lot of men using the standard playbook of treatments. He probably would have done a fine job with me as well, but who wants to be just another in a long series of patients? We all want to be individuals, with unique viewpoints worth listening to.

DrC listened to both me and Darling as we expressed our concerns.

For one thing, I would really like to explore options that get me off this Androgen Deprivation Therapy. The hot flashes are bad enough, but the general weakness and fatigue are extreme. I’d rather have a few years of energy than twice as much time with this exhaustion.

Life doesn't offer us a list of menu items from which we choose our desires. I get that.

DrC listened and said we seem to be on the correct treatment for now, but he wanted some lab results and then he would talk to his team.

And lab results he obtained! Twenty-seven lab results showed up in my record, almost by the time we pulled into the garage. I thought Greenville was fast!

From these results we gleaned four pieces of information. 

1. Most of my results are fine. .     

2. The ADT is working. My testosterone level is 7 ng/dL. Normal for a man my age is 193-740. Mine is now on the low end for a WOMAN my age. 

3. My PSA is now 0.1 ng/dL. Let’s review that number. On May 11 it was 97.35. That started this roller coaster. On May 27 it was 103.2. Nope, that original did not have a misplaced decimal. Apparently ADT works. Oh, goody. 

4. My Alkaline Phosphatase is 148 U/L. The standard range is 40-129. A high number here most likely indicates something wrong with my bones. We already know that. We’re inducing the problem.

DrC also showed us the CT and Bone Scan results, something the MI Dr wasn’t interested in doing, even though we asked.

I didn’t really understand the CT, frankly. I’m not used to scanning up and down a cross-section of images, so it meant little to me. The Bone Scan, though, certainly highlighted the concerns of the doctors. Slight pun intended.

My spine doesn’t look so great in these photos. Not surprising since the other scans (now that I know how to find them) indicate a lot of cancer in my bones.

And, yeah, that constant pain in my right hip - probably the cancer...

Now we go forward and see how to manage all this.

And what the new doctor says.

Thanks for reading.