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I finally have a partial schedule so I'm now prepared to spill the beans on what I'll be up to for the next couple of months. I've already shared this with a few folks on here who I know in the physical world but there may be more of you who give a rip and if so here's what's going on.........
A couple of months back I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. It's the most treatable of cancers but there are side effects to most treatment methods and I quickly decided that I was NOT going to live out my life in diapers. About 20 minutes on the Interwebs and I had the answer - proton beam therapy. It's sort of like conventional radiation therapy except instead of X-rays (pHotons) it uses pRotons. Here's where it gets both tricky and high-tech - to make protons (split off from hydrogen atoms) you need you very own cyclotron (atom smasher). Protons can be aimed with HUGELY greater precision than X-rays and can even be set to discharge their energy at a certain depth so there is little damage on the way in and virtually NO exit dosage. Not surprisingly, not a lot of treatment facilities have a cyclotron so there are only about 15 or so facilities in the US. Given their physical location I had a choice of 2, 1 in Hampton, VA and 1 in Jacksonville, FL. Given that I have Grandkids (young adults, really) in Jax and the fact that Florida Proton has more experience I chose University of Florida Health Proton Therapy Institute or Florida Proton for short.
There are 3 parts to the therapy:
1) Consultation, where they get all your info (they already have a lot of it that I provided over the Internet), take preliminary readings, and we generally get to know each other. I go in for this on April 12th.
2) Simulation, where they make my pod (needed to hold me steady during the treatment phase), place targets in my prostate, and install other stuff to get me ready for treatment (I'm in La-La land (more than usual) for this part). They also run me thru a simulated treatment so I know what I'm in for. We'll work out a schedule when I'm in for the consultation but it's usually 10 days or so after the consult.
3) Treatment, where I get zapped for 6-8 weeks - we'll work out how long in Part 2. The actual treatment is 20-30 minutes/day to properly position me followed by 1-3 minutes of actual beaming. This goes on 5 days/week. Men who have had this say there are NO side effects and you can get up and boogie for the rest of the day. Many of the guys are golfers and want the early appointment times so they can waste the day ruining an otherwise good walk but I'll shoot for later appointments being a late sleeper.
There are a couple of good books on this treatment and my fave is REALLY funny! It's "Protons versus Prostate Cancer - EXPOSED" by Ron Nelson. The author says that it's hard to get much cancer sympathy when you return home tanned (hey, it's in FL after all) and with as much hair as you left home with. And no diapers. He claims that protons also cure dignity.
Hoping to see Steve (Monster) and of course my Grands and the Great-Grands (they're just little guys), maybe get down to the track in Gainesville, take in the Jax museums as well as the Garlits museum (been years), eat some 'gator, and generally do Florida stuff when not in the beam. ME will come down from time to time as her schedule allows and I'll try to get home a few weekends if I can schedule appointments to allow it (early Friday and late Monday would make it easy). It's about a day's drive - 7 hours if you don't stop to pee (I do). I'll be staying at Third and Main - apartments that are set up for proton folks so they know the drill better than we do given that they've been thru it many times.
A side note on proton therapy: They do more than prostate cancer. It can be aimed so precisely that they have even taken a tumor off a kid's optic nerve and left the eye functional. I don't know the details but evidently they now can treat some breast cancers with it, too. So if you or someone you care about is diagnosed with a tumor-type of cancer (it's useless for, say, leukemia) it sure is worth looking into.
So don't get all feeling sorry for me - this is about going thru a process and now that it's finally starting it's a big relief.
Dan
A couple of months back I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. It's the most treatable of cancers but there are side effects to most treatment methods and I quickly decided that I was NOT going to live out my life in diapers. About 20 minutes on the Interwebs and I had the answer - proton beam therapy. It's sort of like conventional radiation therapy except instead of X-rays (pHotons) it uses pRotons. Here's where it gets both tricky and high-tech - to make protons (split off from hydrogen atoms) you need you very own cyclotron (atom smasher). Protons can be aimed with HUGELY greater precision than X-rays and can even be set to discharge their energy at a certain depth so there is little damage on the way in and virtually NO exit dosage. Not surprisingly, not a lot of treatment facilities have a cyclotron so there are only about 15 or so facilities in the US. Given their physical location I had a choice of 2, 1 in Hampton, VA and 1 in Jacksonville, FL. Given that I have Grandkids (young adults, really) in Jax and the fact that Florida Proton has more experience I chose University of Florida Health Proton Therapy Institute or Florida Proton for short.
There are 3 parts to the therapy:
1) Consultation, where they get all your info (they already have a lot of it that I provided over the Internet), take preliminary readings, and we generally get to know each other. I go in for this on April 12th.
2) Simulation, where they make my pod (needed to hold me steady during the treatment phase), place targets in my prostate, and install other stuff to get me ready for treatment (I'm in La-La land (more than usual) for this part). They also run me thru a simulated treatment so I know what I'm in for. We'll work out a schedule when I'm in for the consultation but it's usually 10 days or so after the consult.
3) Treatment, where I get zapped for 6-8 weeks - we'll work out how long in Part 2. The actual treatment is 20-30 minutes/day to properly position me followed by 1-3 minutes of actual beaming. This goes on 5 days/week. Men who have had this say there are NO side effects and you can get up and boogie for the rest of the day. Many of the guys are golfers and want the early appointment times so they can waste the day ruining an otherwise good walk but I'll shoot for later appointments being a late sleeper.
There are a couple of good books on this treatment and my fave is REALLY funny! It's "Protons versus Prostate Cancer - EXPOSED" by Ron Nelson. The author says that it's hard to get much cancer sympathy when you return home tanned (hey, it's in FL after all) and with as much hair as you left home with. And no diapers. He claims that protons also cure dignity.
Hoping to see Steve (Monster) and of course my Grands and the Great-Grands (they're just little guys), maybe get down to the track in Gainesville, take in the Jax museums as well as the Garlits museum (been years), eat some 'gator, and generally do Florida stuff when not in the beam. ME will come down from time to time as her schedule allows and I'll try to get home a few weekends if I can schedule appointments to allow it (early Friday and late Monday would make it easy). It's about a day's drive - 7 hours if you don't stop to pee (I do). I'll be staying at Third and Main - apartments that are set up for proton folks so they know the drill better than we do given that they've been thru it many times.
A side note on proton therapy: They do more than prostate cancer. It can be aimed so precisely that they have even taken a tumor off a kid's optic nerve and left the eye functional. I don't know the details but evidently they now can treat some breast cancers with it, too. So if you or someone you care about is diagnosed with a tumor-type of cancer (it's useless for, say, leukemia) it sure is worth looking into.
So don't get all feeling sorry for me - this is about going thru a process and now that it's finally starting it's a big relief.
Dan
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