Welcome to our CaringBridge site. We've created it to keep friends and family updated. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement during this time when it matters most.
I was diagnosed in November, 2010 with stage 4 prostate cancer, which means it is inoperable and not a candidate for radiation/chemo. I have been receiving androgen reduction therapy which reduces testosterone, a major feeder for cancer of this sort. Some of you have probably noticed me bitching about the (rather mild) side effect that gives me hot flashes.
My PSA, which should be under 4.0 tested nearly 300.0 at diagnosis, but was brought down to under 1.0 by the treatments (an injection every 3 months) but rose a bit when I switched drugs to Lupron and is now coming down again.
About 3 months ago I developed what I thought was tonsilitis and what my Kaiser ENT thought was "a rock in your throat", a bit of food lodged in my tonsil causing an infection. Two rounds of amoxycillin and one round of cipro brought no relief. Back to the ENT last week, but to a different doctor. He took one look and did needle biopsies on my tonsil and left neck lymph node which had become swollen. I almost certainly have a throat cancer. I get an MRI tomorrow (10/29) and should get the biopsy results by Thursday, when I expect to meet my new Kaiser team (previously just needed an urologist).
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