Sonny -Checking in with Radiation Treatment Updates

Greetings to all,

It's been a while since my last post. Hope you all will forgive me. Needed a little break and things have been a little busy on the home front.

Thought I might update those that have been following along with Lynn and my travels down the cancer path.

Just a little memory jogger on why Lynn and I are both going through radiation at the same time.

Lynn has Multiple Myeloma Cancer. She was diagnosed with a plasmacytoma recently on her skull near the brain stem and it was causing some problems with her vision. I went through da Vinci on September 17th and none of my following PSA tests came back as undetectable. The 30 day test was .4, 3 weeks later .53 and two weeks after that, just before radiation began it was .6.

Today I completed IG/IMRT treatment #9 of 35. Tomorrow will end my second week and so far (hear me knocking on wood) there have been no side effects and no issues with the treatment. The folks at MD Anderson Orlando are a well oiled machine. I am receiving my treatments on a TOMO Hi-ART machine. It is an all-in-one machine for alignment and delivery of radiation. I lie down in the table, they line up the tattoos on my hips and abs with the lasers and slide me in for a CT to check alignment. Once the calibrations have been done, I slide through for a second time for delivery of the radiation. Start to finish, 14 minutes.

Lynn completed #11 of 13 today. She is doing well, except for the issues caused by her taking steroids. The are making her face swell and the mask they made to hold her down for the rad treatments is getting more than a little snug. When she comes out she looks like the kid who had his nose pressed up against the screen door too long. Her entire face has these little squares impressed into her skin and it takes about 30 minutes before they go away. She says that with only 2 to go she will get through some how. I told her to take a little can of Crisco with her tomorrow as a joke and tell the techs she felt sorry for them and the work they have to do to get the mask on.

So there you have it. All is going well in the Wolfe household.

I'll be checking back in with an update on the rad treatments. I am posting this info for those that may follow in my footsteps down the Radiation Treatment Path in their battles with the beast known as PCa.

Blessings to all of you and your families,

Sonny

61 years old
PSA 11/07 3.0
PSA 5/09 6.4
Diagnosis confirmed July 9, 2009
12 Needle Biopsy = 9 clear , 3 postive
<5%, 90%, 40%
Gleason Score (3+4) 7 in all positive cores
CT Organ Scan - negative
Nuclear Bone Scan - Negative
da Vinci 9/17/09
Post Surgery Pathology:
Gleason: Changed to (4+3) = 7
Stage: T3a
Tumor Volume 12.5%
NERVES SPARED-positive margin, extra-prostatic extension
30 day PSA 0.4, 50 day psa 0.53, 64 day psa 0.6
IMRT scheduled to begin Nov 30,2009 (74 days post surgery)