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March 24th 2013 - Eight years since diagnosis.
I never dreamt it was possible I'd still be here.
And...I'm still doing OK, although back on HT.
Every year I have posted under this same topic 'T4 PCa in 2005, Poor Prognosis: Upbeat update'
However, I can't feel celebratory at all about my 'anniversaries' these days.
You see, I am one of the lucky ones...although diagnosed with a T4 tumour and spread, (PSA 182), there was no sign of any cancer in my bones or lymph nodes. Somehow, that has continued to be the case, as scans have proved.
I don't know why. Perhaps those 37 RT treatments were delivered with great accuracy, maybe this dairy-free diet helped too.
An added bonus has been that HT has worked again each time I've had to return to it. I have a feeling that I was right never to stay on HT too long. But this is all just surmising.
None of us know, and we each have a unique cancer, we each react differently to both our cancers and our treatments.
So, 8 years on, I am just glad to be here.
Over those eight years I have got to meet up to 100 PCa guys at the twice yearly B2PCa gatherings in the UK.
And of those 100, 28 have lost the battle.
Some of them had become dear friends to me (and to many others here) and it's been specially heartbreaking these past two years.
We lost so many good men in such a short space of time.
As always, the main purpose of this post is to give hope to anyone facing the long fight with PCa.
Don't ever let the doctors 'write you off' and never ever give up hope.
Stay optimistic, stay STUBBORN....and trust your 'gut instinct' about the treatment path you should take.
Well done. With not quite such a dire starting point, I, too, have done better than I feared and expect to do very well for quite a few more years yet.
Might this be a good place to publicise your annual get together of survivors in England, assuming that it still goes strong in 2013?
For once I might get to it. My son has moved within a very few miles of your usual venue and I might just be able to join you and yet have a comfy bed for the night!
Terry knows all about the gatherings of (now what was it he called it?) 'that scatalogical group Bollocks To Pca'. He has even posted a photo of one of the summer events somewhere on here.
Glad to hear you're doing better than expected too, Ed.
As for meeting in Leicester? Well, you just may be in luck.
Although the event was fully booked, I have just been informed of two cancellations.
Please email me if you definitely want to join the party on June 29th
The picture and link to George's blog site is on his Story - July 2011 update.
I did indeed describe George's blog/forum entitled Bollocks to PCa as 'scatalogical' but that is unfair, perhaps a more apt description would be "bawdy" (and sometimes politically incorrect. You can judge for yourselves by going along to Bollocks 2 Pca - Who says you can't have a laugh about cancer!
