Tom
Allen and Jean live in Florida, USA. He was 72 when he was diagnosed March 2007.
His initial PSA was 4.11 ng/ml, his Gleason Score was 6 and he was staged T1c.
His choice of treatment was Proton Radiation. Here is his story.
My adventure
started when I had my yearly physical and blood test, and a PSA reading that was
over 4.0 for the first time, which caused my family doctor to recommend a biopsy.
(He had not felt anything with the digital exam.) Then the results of that biopsy,
prostate cancer, was given to me by my urologist on my March birthday in 2007.
(Not a happy birthday thing.) I have never liked my urologist because he is getting
on up in years and is pretty gruff, and he lived up to my low expectations with
the way he gave me this bad news - the staging was T2a from the biopsy report..
So even though I let him make me a follow-up appointment, I started doing some
investigation on my own about treatment options.
Then, through a mutual
friend, I heard about this fellow in our area that had just gotten back from being
treated for prostate cancer at The Loma Linda Proton Treatment Center in CA. When
I called him, he couldn't say enough positive things about that mode of treatment
and how few side effects there were from it. Then I got a recommended book: "You
Can Beat Prostate Cancer, And You Don't Need Surgery To Do It." By Robert Marckini.
This guy was a PC survivor and had researched all of the options thoroughly before
choosing the proton beam radiation treatment.
Well, after all that, I
had pretty much decided that I was going the proton beam treatment route also,
so I applied at the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute in Jacksonville,
FL. , because it is only a little over 2 hour drive from my house in central FL.
After two visits there, a one day and a three day, for exhaustive tests,
they confirmed my cancer was in the early stages and I did qualify for the proton
radiation treatment, without chemo.
I started my 40 treatments the first
of July, 2007 and finished the end of Aug., 2007 and have nothing but good things
to say about the whole experience and my PSA readings have been steadily decreasing.
They were 1.3 at 3 months and 1.0 at 6 months.
One other thing, while I
was undergoing my treatments, I was able to exercise daily and pretty much live
my life as before. The treatments only took about an hour and a half to 2 hours,
5 days a week.
Tom's e-mail address is: borals5580@mypacks.net
