YANA - YOU ARE NOT ALONE NOW

PROSTATE CANCER SUPPORT SITE

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Michael Clapp lives in North Carolina, USA. He was 58 when he was diagnosed on May 16, 2008. His initial PSA was 6.4 ng/ml, his Gleason Score was 6 and he was staged T1c. His choice of treatment was Proton Treatment at Loma Linda. Here is his story.

About three years ago during my annual physical, my PSA had begun increasing to the 4.0 mark with one year reading 3.7, the next year 4.5, and the next year 4.2. Well, since it had been going up and down around the upper end of the range for PSA, I wasn't concerned about prostate cancer. My GP had even scheduled a biopsy about three years ago in January - in North Carolina. Well, the day of the biopsy, it had snowed and there was too much ice and snow on the ground for me to get out of the driveway, so I called and left a message that I was cancelling the appointment. I found out later that the office had been closed for the day, so I never rescheduled the biopsy.

In February 2008 after my annual physical, my PSA test came back 9.2, and I was just short of heart failure at that point. I couldn't figure out how it could have increased that much over the year and knew I was just short of the grave. I scheduled the prostate biopsy with my urologist, and he took one more PSA along with a free PSA test, which I had never heard of before that time. I was scheduled for the biopsy May 14, 2008, and the PSA came back 6.4, which didn't make sense to me or my urologist.[This kind of variance is fairly typical and is often caused by a disease or infection - see PSA 101 for further information]

Two days later, he called back with the famous news that I had prostate cancer in one of the 12 needles of the biopsy in the upper right lobe, and called it early stage. He suggested that I as a "perfect candidate" at my age for RP and then scheduled my consult for two weeks to discuss the options for treatment.

At that point, I was aware of his expertise in the Da Vinci robotic technique, so I wanted to find out the side effects of that procedure. During my research, I quickly found this YANANOW website listing so many other options for treatment, and I think I read every mentor's story listed here to absorb as much knowledge as I could and see if I could make a better decision than surgery.

The beginning of this year at work, an agent for AFLAC came to us, and I just felt led to take out the cancer policy, and I am so glad that I did. BC/BS (Blue Cross/Blue Shield) of North Carolina will pay all but $3,000 of the bill, and AFLAC will fill in the gaps with payments to me, so that I can fly to Loma Linda and have what I consider to be the best proton treatment option of the five currently available.

I also want to say at this point that after the original diagnosis, I had my slides sent to Johns Hopkins for a second opinion,[It is recommended that a second opinion is always sought to verify a Gleason Score - see RECOGNISED EXPERT PATHOLOGISTS ] which BC/BS paid for. There is a website for Johns Hopkins, and if you type into their Search bar, "Dr. Jonathan Epstein" you will find his information and a form that your urologist can complete with the mailing address, etc. for the ease of the local lab.

I decided on Loma Linda, after choosing proton treatment, because they have a program to treat the "whole man, body, soul and spirit." not just administer proton radiation. After consulting with the other four current units in Jacksonville, FL, Massachusetts General in Boston, Indiana and Texas, I found that they did not have the quality of total program that Loma Linda has. I decided that if I had to spend 9 weeks away from home, family and work, that I should be in the best place possible.

Now, I am here at Loma Linda preparing for my first treatment tomorrow morning, and will keep you all informed at a later time of the good, bad, and ugly and otherwise issues that may come my way. Meanwhile, do not let any urologist tell you this treatment is bogus, experimental or other negative spew. Check out www.msnbc.msn.com and type in "George Lewis" in the search engine for the website. He is a news correspondent for NBC that was diagnosed with prostate cancer recently and chose proton treatment also from Loma Linda and brought his news crew to video the experience. His videos and story are on the website.

Talk to you all again soon! Ciao!

 

UPDATED

March 2009

 

 

Hi, Folks!

I just had my annual physical, and since it has been 4 months since the end of my proton radiation treatments from Loma Linda Univ. Medical Center, I wanted to let you know that my PSA dropped from 15.3 after my prostate biopsy and one prior to treatment to 2.8!

I was told when I left that I should expect about a 30% drop in PSA, but this is off the charts already as far as I am concerned. I haven't seen a PSA this low in over ten years. I am looking forward to watching it drop every six months now for five years.

This treatment option has kept my quality of life intact, and I don't know of a better institution than Loma Linda University Medical Center and Dr. Jabola's staff. No incontinence or impotence issues at all.

I look forward to posting again in September with new results!!

 

UPDATED

September 2010

 

 

I planned to update my story at least every 6 months when I have my PSA taken, but my PSA in March "bumped" up to 2.2 from 1.8 in Sept. 2009, so I wanted to wait until this fall when I get my next test before I send out any negative news regarding my results from Proton Radiation Therapy. [With the greatest respect to Michael, I think we all should 'tell it like it is' - men deserve to hear 'bad news' as well as 'good news'.] It is not unusual for a man's PSA to raise a bit on its long decent for five years to a nadir, and mine was 15.3 at the time of treatment, so it fell quite fast after the first six months to 2.8, I beieve.

I promise to stay in touch with a package of news regarding testing this fall.

Michael's e-mail address is achpiquon2@juno.com