Back to Seidman Cancer Center

Seidman Cancer Center
Beachwood, OH

Wednesday, 9:15 a.m.

In about forty-five minutes, Joyce and I will head up to Seidman Cancer Center (visible on I-271, just before the Chagrin Blvd exit; east side), where I will have one of my scheduled sessions with my oncologist. This is actually our second trip there this week. We were there early on Monday morning when I underwent a couple of CT scans (checking to see if my cancer has moved elsewhere--besides my bones).

I also had a PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) test last week--and the results of that were not encouraging. Because a Cleveland Clinic surgeon removed my prostate gland in June 2005, I shouldn't really have any PSA--but prostate cancer cells reveal it, as well. I'm now on monthly tests. Last month it was 16.95; this month it was 20.13. That's not good. But we'll see what the doctor says later this morning.

Just a quick refresher: I was diagnosed with prostate cancer late in 2004; prostatectomy in June 2005; the cancer came back; radiation therapy (30 sessions) in the winter of 2009; cancer came back; the past few years I've been on hormone-deprivation therapy (two drugs that kill testosterone, one "food" of the cancer), and I'm also taking heavy-duty meds to protect my bones (the other drugs I'm on weaken bones). This past winter I underwent immunotherapy--a process to empower my own T-cells to fight the cancer. And here we are ... what next? That's what we'll find out later this morning, and I will add to this when I get home ...


2:00 p.m.

Finally back from a long, complicated morning. My CT scans showed stability, but he's concerned about my rising PSA and suggests the next thing to do is to radiate the two areas that seem to be principally affected: a spot on a rib, a spot on my spine. So ... tomorrow I go back to Seidman to meet with the radiation team that will be dealing with me. (Three times to Seidman in one week--that's a record I don't ever want to break!) And I'm scheduled for a nuclear bone scan in a couple of weeks to give the team a more accurate assessment of where to zap.

Also, he's taking me off one drug (Casodex) and will soon put me on another--one whose base price is about $8000/month. Needless to say, we'll see what the insurance coverage will be before that proceeds!

I also had the pleasure of my quarterly Lupron injection (in a place I cannot see).

Again--the waiting room at Seidman is a workshop in humility. So many suffering people--all ages, races, economic status, ...

And this moment that almost dissolved me. We were in the waiting area, not long after we arrived. Emerging from the exam/treatment rooms came a family: a grandmother, a mother, a child (3? 4?). The grandmother had a cane, was moving very slowly, in evident pain, shuffling off to the parking lot. The little girl left her mother's side, moved up beside her grandmother, took her hand ...