Wishing you Happy Holidays!

First, I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy and Healthy New Year.

In case you have noticed no new posts for awhile, I'm taking a break.  With the extra trips and care
giving duties since my husband was diagnosed with prostate and extensive bone cancer,  I've been
concentrating my time and energy with him.

We first visited the Cancer Center in Oneonta, NY in early October.  At that time, he was quite weak.
He was unable to even take a step without assistance.  I assisted him out of the van right into a wheelchair.
I'm happy to say when we went for his appointment and checkup yesterday, he got out of the van
on his own and walked inside with his cane while I parked.  We still use a wheelchair inside as he
still can't walk very far and that place is a former mall and huge.

For those interested, I will high point information about his illness and treatment regime:

With an elevated PSA (prostate lab test) for some 15 years,  prostate cancer was suspected.  Two
different biopsies were done, but both came back negative.  They apparently missed a hot spot.
He is now 87 and due to his age, nothing further was done since prostate cancer is slow growing
in older men.

 Unfortunately,  the prostate cancer had also been silently spreading to his bones--ALOT
of bones which includes almost every bone except his arms and legs, except for the upper part of
one femur.  The skull is involved also.

The first sign of the bone cancer was low back pain two days after the
TURP (Transurethral Resection of the Prostate) which he opted for to get rid of the catheter that was required  for 3 months after the enlarged prostate caused him to go into kidney failure when it blocked
off urine flow.

For the prostate cancer, hormone therapy via pills was started right away "To put out the fire", as his Urologist put it.  He is on daily hormone pills and a long lasting hormone shot every 3 months.

He was also started on osteoporosis shots to help strengthen the bones.  I'm sure you may have seen that advertisement by the actress with the saying about "Break a leg"!  That shot he gets once a month along with a checkup.

The third part of his treatment was a one-time liquid radiation infusion which goes to all the bones.  The
main reason for this is to reduce the bone pain and to help prolong his life.  This did work like magic and within a few days he had less pain.  In fact, much of the day, he now has no pain.  Before, he hardly was
ever without pain.  Thank you for magic.  He can have that infusion every 3 months as needed if he
tolerates it.  Right now, we are watching a low platelet count that may or may not be from that.
That involves weekly blood tests for now to follow that. 

The PSA came down to 30 from 72 and hopefully will continue to lower.  He has been told he could live
several years since prostate cancer at his age is slow growing.  Now to keep his other health problems
in check and his body in balance.


PS He died June 13, 2014.  Bones are needed to make blood and frequent blood transfusions became part of the regime.  After one very low blood count episode, he got pneumonia, then fluid imbalance and his heart couldn't tolerate that overload.  He loved dancing, so I hope he is dancing and having a good time in heaven.  We were married nearly 39 years.  We enjoyed dancing with The Broken Squares in Norwich for many years.  All of our children and several children also danced with us.