Hip Hip Hooray…It’s Chemo Day! 🎈🎈🎈

@surftohealth88 - Thanks for the research, surf. Carboplatin combined with Jevtana (cabazitaxel) and prednisone has already been discussed. The question becomes how sick to I want to get to try and not be sick. Side effects are more severe and more difficult to manage. That's why I chose Taxotere first. I think my next step, should current treatment fail, is to let radiation oncology have a whack at it and see how much they can target. At least they should be able to knock out some of this bone pain. I need to do more research into the carbo/jevtana thing before I can agree to it.

My wife spent the last two years of her life fighting lung cancer. Metastatic to eyes, brain, and liver. Wills Eye Clinic and Abramson in Philly, Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Chemo # 1,2, &3. Gamma knife times 4, liver radiotracer clinical trials and so on and so on. One thing she did not do was enjoy the time she had left. We spent all the time traveling to and from doctors and trials. And she was always fighting treatment side effects. I will not follow that path. At some point the chase ends. There is a line to be drawn. I'm not yet sure where that line is but when I get there, I am sure I will draw it.

On a more positive note, I stopped at the butcher on the way home from chemo and grabbed a really nice 2-inch T-Bone for when I can eat again in 10 days or so. 😁

Praying all goes well for you!! Your among a lot of been there done that club; lots of support and encouragement. May God bless you.

@mjp0512
I understand completely what you are trying to say and how you feel. I also can see and understand why your wife chose to fight to the very last end. We are all so different and it is impossible to predict of how we would behave in such a tough situation. I will be honest and say that I tried on several occasions in my life to imagine what I personally would do, but it is just not realistic to predict one's response - only person who is experiencing it in real time knows how they feel and why they feel that way and what they think is the best path forward. I also think that the same person would react differently at different times of one's lifetime and for different reasons too. There is no right time to give up or the right way to say goodbye - the right time is when we personally decide that the time is right. 😞 Lung cancer is very fast and efficient killer and with mets to the brain and eyes : (( her life would have been very painful and limiting and very short regardless, so she had to try and fight with all that she had.

On the bright side : )), I am so happy to hear that your appetite is good for the most part 😎 and that freezer is stashed : )). I can also see from other posts that your doctors are considering all kind of new approaches and that is GREAT !!! You are really in competent hands and that is a half battle won right there ; ) ! We can only take one step/day at the time when nonsense like this is thrown on our path and I hope that today is tolerable and that bananas are tasting good *hugsssss

Sending vibes galore and thinking of you 🌺

What's a little comical about this whole thing is that it started when I was admitted to the hospital in renal failure from urinary retention. Now, obviously caused by PCa. It's 21 months later, ADT, ARSI, radiation, chemo, and I still use a catheter to pee. If they just sent me home with a lifetime supply of catheters, I would have been fine... with hair, normal man boobs, and a belly that doesn't look like a Buddha statue.🤣😂

@mjp0512
Heh - well, if we go into metaphysical spheres and consider possibility of body-mind interaction perhaps we can see Buddha shape as a result of enlightenment that is forced on every single PC patient - like it or not lol 😉 lol
Everybody facing cancer and becoming acutely aware of their mortality just MUST jump one layer up in understanding the universe and purpose of suffering so there we go, ; ) he he - PC patients are just becoming one with the Buddha 👍, nothing wrong with that ! ; )

As a side note, last year I found some big study (I forgot the name) where they followed patients after RP who did NOT have any further therapy regardless of pathology and they lived in average 13 yeas ! Even the first RO that we talked to knew about that so yes- one sometimes scratches one's head and wonder .... and wonder .... and by wondering is becoming like a Buddha 😋 !!!

I hope that you are doing as OK as possible today 🤞 and that Kat is extra snugly since she can sense colder autumn days coming. : ))

@surftohealth88 I have to add something very strange to all that.
My wife loves People Magazine and I usually don’t read it myself; but I was intrigued by the cover story of Joe Manangiello ( Sophia Vergara’s ex) and his medical fight for his life.
Long story short, he almost died from gangrene of intestine after suffering lifetime of IBS, Crohn’s and other gut maladies.
The surgeons saved him but had NO explanation for his chronic illness…now here’s the crazy part: he consults a local shaman who somehow treats his “generational trauma” - illnesses actually inherited by either emotional or physical trauma and he is CURED….get that?? So of course, I laughed my ass off and put the magazine in the recycling bin.
BUT, stranger than that, the same night I watched a NOVA presentation on PBS. It was about “Inherited Generational Trauma”!! I almost dropped dead at the timing…
Again, to keep it short, mice were exposed to an almond odor while simultaneously being given a small electric shock. There’s the trauma.
Their offspring - just ONE generation later - had noticeably more nasal cells present which sensed the chemical ester present in almonds….they reacted very strongly to it without any kind of shock…
So perhaps many of our illnesses - including some cancers- are manifestations of trauma inflicted on our forbears; perhaps we too have grown cells more reactive to certain chemicals and for us, those chemicals become carcinogens?
Perhaps certain mutations only found in certain cultures (Tay Sachs, thalassemia, hemochromatosis) are the direct result of whatever trauma those people suffered: purges, pogroms, massacre…who knows??
There is a direct mind/body link but perhaps it is many magnitudes stronger than ever suspected. Best,
Phil

@heavyphil - You're getting pretty deep for someone with a severe case of chemo brain. I'll have to read this again in a day or two. 😵

@mjp0512 Sorry Mike! The gist of the article is this: when all else fails, get a witch doctor.
Phil