Replies to I have "peeked behind the door of death by PCa…" That's a hard no for me….

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Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Aug 10 2:29pm | Replies (59)

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@kujhawk1978

I have "peeked behind the door of death by PCa..." That's a hard no for me.

Throughout my 10+ years with my PCa, not once have I looked forward to treatment. I recall vividly each time, the night before my surgery, the first, well each and every damn Lupron shot, the night before my first chemotherapy infusion and the next five, taking the loading dose of Orgovyx and then every night for 364 days...interestingly, the 69 radiation treatments never invoked the same emotion of dread.

Still, here I am, three years on treatment, seven plus off despite many high risk clinical indicators - GS 8, Grade Group 4, 18 months to BCR, PSADT and PSAV....I honestly feel that without treatment, I would not be typing this today.

The side effects of treatment have been annoying but not life altering. I've packed a lot of living into those ten plus years. I don't regret my treatment decisions, in an inverse way, I am grateful to have had the choices, 30k or so here in the US each year do not get to make those decisions.

Kevin

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Replies to "I have "peeked behind the door of death by PCa..." That's a hard no for me...."

northoftheborder | @northoftheborder | Aug 4 9:21am

I'm so glad you've had a good outcome. ♥️. I'm also hoping for 10+ years, even though they intially told me to expect many fewer (this fall will be three years with no disease progression).

I wish there were a test for dormant prostate-cancer cells hiding in my bones (or elsewhere); they're probably still there, but there's always a chance they're gone.

My concern about a "treatment holiday" (which is becoming common practice for earlier-stage prostate cancer) is that my oligometastatic castrate-*sensitive* cancer might come back in a couple of years as castrate-*resistant*, which would significantly alter my position. So onwards with Orgovyx and Erleada for now, since they're working, and the side effects aren't all that bad.

(This is in addition to emergency debulking surgery on my spinal lesion, and "curative" doses of radiation to my spine and prostate.)

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