Hey Folks!
You might have noticed that I didn’t post as many articles as usual last week. I’ve been busy traveling for medical appointments and doing a bunch of research. My cancer has come back.
Most of you know I had prostate cancer ablation surgery about 15 months ago. My six- month followup MRI was spotless and everything looked great. Since then, my PSA blood tests have been steadily rising when they shouldn’t be.
I went back to Atlanta for another MRI last week. The cancer is back.
It is re-growing in an area that was completely fried two times during the ablation procedure. My doc has done 318 of these surgeries since they were FDA approved in 2021. My case was only his 11th recurrence. If the odds of something happening are only 3%, should I feel lucky that I’m in such a select group?
I don’t really feel lucky.
The good news is that the cancer is really tiny. It’s too small to even biopsy. There’s a greater than 99% chance that it hasn’t spread. Unless my cancer is of an exceptionally rare type, it will almost always first spread to the lymph nodes before it moves to the bones. My lymph nodes were completely clear on last week’s MRI.
Interestingly enough, the first MRI I had on Tuesday showed some suspicious lesions on my hip bones. The doc initially thought the cancer had spread.
I did a second followup MRI (it was a long day) an hour after the first one. The doc now thinks that the marks on my hips are bone bruises caused by heavy squats and deadlifts. I don’t have any hip pain, but there is some temporary minor damage to my pelvis that shows up on MRI from my weight lifting. Something for you gym bros to remember if you ever get an MRI (or two).
It’s possible that the cancerous tumor the doc found today is a type of cancer that doesn’t metastasize. It’s too early to tell. I have to get a PSMA PET scan. We are also submitting the biopsy slides for advanced genetic testing to see what kind of cancer it is and how likely it is to spread.
So now I play the waiting game. Apparently, the universe decided that I didn’t learn enough from my first cancer challenge four years ago. It’s 4-6 weeks to get the genetic testing results back. I’ll probably have to wait another six to nine months for the lesion to become large enough to biopsy or treat.
How the biopsy works. Not looking forward to getting another one.
This is bad news, but probably the best kind of bad news. The cancer likely isn’t close to spreading and I won’t be dying anytime soon. The cancer at this stage is much less deadly than it was before I had my surgery last year. I have a lot of research to do and some treatment options to think about. I’m happy with my current treatment plan and will know more once I get the genetic testing results.
I’m doing fine, have no symptoms, and don’t expect that this will affect my teaching/writing/traveling schedule any time soon.
After I survived Covid hospitalization and round one with the cancer, I told folks I was hard to kill. Apparently my cancer is too.
I’ll give you all updates when I get them.
