So, I've already experienced the spinal deterioration — by the time my PCa was detected, I had a huge lesion on my middle spine that they had to remove with > 10 hours of emergency surgery, then replace everything they gouged out from T1 to T5 using cement and metal bars.

I'm not saying it's a picnic, but I don't want others who already have bone metastases to panic and think they're doomed. It took a while, but after 3 years I can walk again, clear snow, garden, etc. I'm not pain free — low/moderate pain is a constant companion — but I've been off nerve-pain meds since spring 2023 and am doing fine with only the occasional Tylenol before bed when I think pain might keep me awake.

Treatment has improved dramatically in the last few years, and I credit that for the fact that I'm *not* experiencing all the horrors @heavyphil and others remember friends/family going through in the past.

It's not lucky having prostate cancer, but if you have to have it, it's very lucky having it in 2024 rather than 2014 (or even 2019 to some extent). But for < diety>'s sake, make sure you take that treatment, or you'll be no better off now than you eould have been then.