Tuesday 16 July 2013

Restored to Life - or the Cancer story

I met a man in Britain whose father had a PSA (prostate specific antigen) reading of 4960 - yes that is in the thousands. My own was about 30 when my cancer (Gleason scale 10 - the max) was diagnosed. This man's father still had his PSA reduced to below 1 by hormone therapy giving him relief from the cancer that had spread to all his bones except those below the knee.  My own cancer seems not to have metastasized anywhere.

Some of you will have followed my prior posts related to cancer. It is perhaps too early - it may take another 5 years - to say that I am cancer-free. But my readings have plummeted as the graph shows. Look at them. They are less than 0.01 - that's 6 orders of magnitude less than my friend's father, 4 orders less than my own highest measurement, and an order of magnitude less than what the readings were when I began my visits to the radiation treatment centre.

I will visit my Urologist today without any medicine in my hands. My decision is to not continue with any treatment. I expect he will agree. My oncologist and other consultants have already confirmed that this is a reasonable decision. So today I will begin the process of recovering from the hormone therapy, a process that takes about 6 to 7 months.

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