We headed up to Denver on Wednesday and got a hotel. Thursday morning, we met with the radiation oncologist at 9AM to talk to him about radiating the lumbar spine area where Marshall just had his most recent surgery. He said doing radiation in this area presents more risks than other areas and some of the risks are bowel and bladder incontinence, nerve damage and paralysis. He said he thought the risks were still low but since they were higher than they were in the last surgery he wanted to be sure he made them very clear to us. He wanted Marshall to think about it for a bit before making a decision.
He also pointed out that there was now cancer in Marshall's right shoulder (where he's been having all that pain) and he could radiate that area, too. He said radiation to the shoulder was pretty much risk-free. So Marshall went ahead and got mapped for the radiation. They will call us in 7 to 10 days to schedule the radiation.
Then we saw Dr. Flaig. Marshall's PSA is now up to 262. We talked to Dr. Flaig about the radiation and he said he thought Marshall should go ahead with it because after going through that grueling surgery it would be counterproductive to not get the radiation to try to clear out all the little bits and pieces that couldn't be removed with the surgery. He said the cancer is very aggressive.
We also talked to Dr. Flaig about the Zytiga that Marshall has started taking again. He told us that Marshall's testosterone level is now at 23 (and when being treated for prostate cancer, it should go down to 0). He thought this was a good thing because it can conceivably jump-start the Zytiga. He wants Marshall to give the Zytiga at least three months to work.
We spent Thursday night with some good friends in Golden and we came back home today. Marshall was -- and still is -- very depressed.
No comments:
Post a Comment