As promised in the previous post, I am starting to focus on my own health again, which admittedly I had not done very much of the prior 14 months or so.
I've had blood work done and the good news from the bloodwork is the CBC or basically "is all your stuff working all right," came back perfect.
What was not quite encouraging was the ultra sensitive PSA test. I've attached the graph, but as you can see in basically 4 1/2 - 5 months, the PSA has tripled. That's a lot.
Now, no one has ever died from a high PSA, and in comparison to many men with PCa, mine is quite low .....still, when the pathologist confirms that the cancer you have is of an aggressive form and you were diagnosed with metastatic cancer with a PSA of 5.2, (< 4 being "normal") the current count does indicate need for further investigation. The problem with aggressive prostate cancer is that the PSA numbers tend to be very low. Which is by way of saying that many men aren't diagnosed until their PSA is in the hundreds or thousands. Again, mine was 5.2. My chemotherapy induced neuropathic pain (CINP) is pretty status quo although perhaps has had a slight uptick. It's my fatigue that seems to have crept up noticeably.
I'm in the process of seeing if I want to just do a repeated Auxumin scan, or if I want to push to get the newer PSMA scan. This cutting edge imaging process that seems to pick up small traces of cancer throughout the body. So that's what I'm going to push for, but even if I don't get that I'll still do the Auxumin scan because it's good to know where you're at.
This dramatic rise may indicate why going to the gym, why going to Austin, why doing so much of what I've done in the last few months has been so exhausting. Really exhausting.
But it might not.
More to follow as I have it but that's basically the situation at the moment.
