Following my recent trip to Jacksonville, Florida for the annual checkup at the Florida Proton Therapy Institute, I am thrilled to share some updates on the progress of my health journey. Accompanied by Nancy, the visit involved comprehensive assessments, and I am happy to report that everything is on track. Notable Changes: 1. PSA Level: […]
My Battle
My battle with prostate cancer cells lasted six weeks. My battle with doctors and insurance companies lasted one year and four months.
Lowest In History
This is my lowest PSA reading in over 2 years. The Proton Therapy is working. I’ll take this reading to Jacksonville on July 18th.
Improvements
PSA is expected to drop even further by my follow-up appointment with Dr Bill in July.
Published
Link To Local Newspaper
Letter to the Editor
Let’s review: Now, I wait to see if my letter and Dr. Roach’s reply will be published.
This Was Disturbing
This post has nothing to do with my proton therapy and everything to do with Proton Therapy. During my six weeks’ absence from home, Nancy saved some newspaper articles she thought I might be interested in. One of those articles I found disturbing. Read the article here: TCPalm News Paper The author of the article […]
Chimes
Wait and See
The Green gantry (Pencil Beam) is still having problems so yesterday and today my treatment is on the Yellow gantry (Scatter Beam). Transferring from one gantry type to another is not a simple task. Transferring from a scatter beam gantry to a pencil beam gantry requires input from your doctor, a physicist, and an engineer. […]
Handpan
I must arrive 30 minutes early for my proton therapy treatments so I can go through the required water ritual. As I sat in the waiting room there was this very soothing background music, and it turned out to be on an instrument that I’d never seen before. It’s called a handpan. I thought what […]
Hallelujah
I just heard from Brianna that I’m going to be moved back to the Yellow Gantry for today’s treatment. It should be sometime later this afternoon or this evening. Music from the Royal Choral Society
Another Video
While I was waiting for a call about my treatment schedule, I came across another YouTube video explaining proton therapy. If you’re interested in how protons therapy works you may find this graphic interesting. It’s about 2 minutes in length.
Relax, Sit Back, and Wait
https://www.floridaproton.org/gantry-times
Major Setback
They had a major problem with the green gantry today and I was not able to get treatment. I spoke with the doctor, and this means my final treatment will be on Friday instead of Thursday. This will delay my journey home. I hope they have the problem corrected by tomorrow morning.
This is Not A Good Way To Start My Final Week
My treatments are in the Green gantry. (Room 5)
Androgen Deprivation Therapy
Also known as hormone therapy is another treatment considered when dealing with prostate cancer. I was offered this treatment along with proton therapy but decided against it. In this post, I will give my very simplistic explanation of hormone therapy and provide links to more comprehensive and thorough descriptions. Androgen Deprivation Therapy (ADT) is used to […]
Support Groups
There are various support groups recommended by the Institute and I decided to visit two of them this week. The first was a men’s support group that met at the institute and the meeting was followed by a catered lunch. Between 15 and 20 men attended this group and the format was such that each […]
Question: Insurance
I have heard from a professional at the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute that the entire cancer industry in the United States is built around the research of 10 years of studies. No one wants to take any action on anything in the US until a 10-year study has been completed. That is the […]
Back To Normal
Today, I had my treatment around 5:00 PM as opposed to my regular time of 7:00 AM. I believe they were having problems focusing the proton beam and hopefully, they have it corrected. Tomorrow, I’m back to my regular time of 7:00 AM. The good news is they were able to treat all the kids […]
Rough Start
Week five started out with an early morning call informing me that they were having technical difficulties with my gantry. They would try to reschedule me for late in the morning. However, it might be after the time reserved for children which would mean my session is postponed until this afternoon. I hope they can […]