Cancer, Covid, and How in the world am I still here?

 

CANCER

In Spring of 2020 I went to my doctor with some issues – I was going to the bathroom all the time, and not very successfully; then I had some bleeding. He saw me a couple of times and decided to do a scan. I called before the scan and told him the bleeding had gotten considerably worse, so he referred me to a urologist. In July I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I had a PSA of 43. An internet search reveals, “In general: For men in their 60s: A PSA score greater than 4.0 ng/ml is considered abnormal.” Yeah, 43 is rather high. I didn’t know that then, but Mary recognized that right away.

The biopsy revealed a Gleason score of 8/10. “Gleason scores are a grading system for prostate cancer. Healthcare providers use Gleason score results to set up treatment plans. Gleason scores range from 6 (low-grade cancer) to 10 (high-grade cancer). Low-grade prostate cancer grows more slowly than high-grade cancer and is less likely to spread.”

My urologist told me my prostate was “very large and asymmetrical”. So, I had it bad: very large prostate, with a severe and aggressive cancer.

I asked the pastor of Church of the Resurrection in Rock Hill, SC to anoint me and pray for me. Later the pastor and another brother came to my house and prayed again.

My prayer was, “Lord, what are you going to do in this? Will you heal me? Will I go through treatment? Will I die from this?” Shortly after that, I woke up in the middle of the night (which in itself was not abnormal in those days) and the Lord gave me this verse, 1 Peter 5:10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. There it was, It was going to be hard going for a while, but I would get better, which being translated means it wouldn’t kill me.

The treatment: My urologist said it was a testosterone fed cancer, so the goal was two-fold: dry up the testosterone in my system and zap the prostate. I began an 18-24 month Android Deprivation Therapy to remove testosterone and radiation treatments (8 week, 5 days a week, 43 total) to zap the prostate.

Android Deprivation Therapy (ADT). Android comes from the Greek word for man, andros, and Deprivation means, well, you get the picture. It is very effective.

Radiation. They zapped me good, which is a euphemism for they did me in. I would park a mile away and walk to my radiation treatments. Going was difficult because they wanted my bladder full for treatment (I always made it, but just barely!). More often than not I was feeling so bad afterwards that I barely made it back to my Jeep. The week of Thanksgiving I had to go in on a Sunday because they were closed on Thursday and Friday, so I went to treatment and from there to church. I was feeling so bad when I got to church it was visible. That church had communion every Sunday (❤️), for which we went down front and knelt at the kneeling bench. After serving me the Cup, the Deaconess, Jean Roach, made a step toward the next person but came back to me, laid hands on me, and prayed for me. I immediately improved!! I practically skipped back to my seat and sang with gusto the closing song!! Still moves me.

After 6 months of ADT, I did detailed research on it (because it was so bad), specifically the survival rates of those who stopped at 6 months compared to those who got all 24 months. There was only a 3% difference, so my thought was, “There is only this small difference; I have been prayed for and anointed; I’m going to trust the Lord.” So I stopped the ADT. I might add, not a single urologist was happy with this decision.

Oh yeah, I was so happy to ring that bell after my last radiation treatment!!

So, how am I doing now, 4 years later? one year shy of that magical 5 years? I’m still kickin’! I’m still suffering the side effects of ADT and radiation (to varying degrees), and most likely always will; but I am better. And this is probably preferable to having metastasized cancer. An interesting side note: I have been to three other urologists since July 2020. They all say they would have treated me differently than the first doctor and none of the four agreed on how they would’ve treated me! Also, one of them told me that because of the treatment prescribed by the first urologist, if this cancer returns there is really nothing that they can do. In other words, my goose is cooked. (In more ways than one - I’m pretty sure I have already received my lifetime limit of radiation.) So, I choose the “No return” option!