Good Sunday evening (or Monday morning) to all of you. I'd like to provide an update on my situation and that of my father, while we're at it. First, my dad. He's 89 and a half years old and been on this PC project since his early sixties. He started LU177 in September, after Xtandi stopped working, with a PSA of around 16. After one infusion, his PSA was 2.8 and after two infusions, it was .8 so I think we can say this is going very well for him.
As for me, I spent much of 2022 getting Cabazitaxel and Carboplatin--nine cycles! It was an up and down journey with marginal PET scan results after three, and then still marginal after six cycles. But after nine, things looked a lot better on the Choline PET (I generally get the Choline PET as they show more uptake on me than the more famous PSMA PET scans). I still have a tiny amount of PSA--I'm told by MO that PSA isn't a super informative indicator for me--my PSA was very low at the start of chemo with a messy-looking PET scan, and now, with a basically clear PET scan PSA is just a little lower than very low.
The surprise (not a good surprise) on the PET scan was that a compression fracture that had been developing over the last while had deteriorated to the point where broken bone fragments were protruding into my spinal column. Before this bone was radiated a couple of years ago, they warned me that 10% of radiation patients (radiation to this area) develop a "broken" vertebrae. No regrets. The tumor had to go. But it was now necessary to fix this collateral damage once and for all. The only way to decompress and stabilize this side of the spine is to enter through and past the vital organs. Therefore, I had a very involved and complicated surgery early last month, and am feeling more normal as the weeks progress, now. How did this happen? Life. Maybe a couple of MTB and XC ski wipeouts made a small contribution, but more likely than not, the fracture is the result of over-doing it shoveling snow one very cold day after my old snow blower failed to start (because of the cold--I think it was about 0F or -17C which, I know, an important temp for a snow blower to start!). The lesson learned is someone like me should be more careful, and buy a new snow blower sooner rather than later. I'll be more careful in the future.
Difficulty in passing stool for past 2 weeks- is it common in AdvPc?
Looking for what might be there
