Fait Accompli

I had to hold back a tear when I said good bye to the gantry crew. It is amazing how close you feel to these wonderful people. These four had the task of setting me up for treatment every day. After 45 balloons I know putting in and taking out that balloon cannot be a pretty sight. Not only are there very few good looking rear ends in the 60 year old range but sometimes there is a little bit more that comes out then put in with those balloons. I have nothing but gratitude for the work these people do. The truth is most prostate patients are easy to deal with. For the most part we are outwardly healthy without the apparent damage other cancers cause.

Over the next two weeks I have only to re-enter the world, one without the focus of cancer, researching cancer and second guessing my decision. Although cancer is not far away from my thoughts it’s time to put it on a back burner. I do plan to join local prostate groups in the hopes of sharing my experience. In addition in four months I will have my first post treatment PSA test to determine progress in remission. It is expected to fall over the next few years to its nadir, lowest point. In speaking with my doctor the goal is to bring it below 1.0ng/ml. The best place is to have it sub 0.5ng/ml. Any result above 1.0 my doctor felt it was suspect to return at some future date. In one year I plan to return hopefully to coincide with a reunion and a one year follow up at Loma Linda.

It is a fait accompli – the deal is done. You can only pass this way once. Once treated with radiation of any type it is difficult to do supplementary treatments for a reoccurrence. There is no treatment which offers a 100% cure rate for all. During my time here I was surprised how many were here for a secondary treatment following a surgery escape. For some the best solution for post surgery escape is radiation treatment of which proton treatment is one the best. No matter what treatment is chosen the bottom line is to do treatment once so there is a very high likely hood of complete treatment.


One aspect of being in the Loma Linda environment you see guys being treated differently because of the progression of their disease. The milder case similar to mine with higher Gleason but lower PSA received highly targeted protons. Those with high PSA and high Gleason scores were treated with additional treatments in different combinations of hormone and photons. Hormones are used to minimize the cancer growth and photons to radiate a wider area beyond the prostate to kill off possible escapes. The treatment was about 20 treatments of protons and 25 treatments of photons. As patients we were constantly and very openly comparing our treatments successes and failures. Those who had treatment with photons almost immediately had to be concerned with their diet and most had to deal with tiredness. There is a very clear and sharp difference in the impact of the two types of radiation.

In retrospect I came through this proton experience with ease. I had only one side effect hesitancy, easily treated with Flowmax. Each of us reacted differently to the protons. Some had no issues at all but most noticed the hesitancy which was most pronounced starting in the evenings going into early morning. During the day we hardly noticed a problem. Others had urgency – when they had to go, they had to go now. Those with hemorrhoids also had issues. Almost in all cases those who had the photons had the most descriptive complaints which implies they were dealing with worse problems. I know anyone can argue this paragraph as being very anecdotal without statistic. It is however the impression I walked away with.

Today we leave Loma Linda for home. I am not only looking forward to getting home but to the trip home. Since I feel so good we plan to take our time by adding almost a thousand miles to our driving trip. We are going home the long way. We will be California tourist for the next seven days going up the coast with stops in Santa Barbara, Atascadero, Oakland to visit friends we made here in treatment and finally to Lake Tahoe. We expect to be home in Colorado by Memorial Day.

I expect to add to this blog with reasonable frequency but not on a regular basis. If you think a new prostate patient would benefit from this blogs information please let them know the link and ask them to contact me.