After prostate surgery, Kevin's PSA remained in the 0.02-0.03 range until Nov 2015 when it jumped to 0.06. This was an unpleasant surprise, but the medical team didn't seem too worried about it. Nevertheless, we did. His PSA continued to rise, slowly fluctuating between 0.04 and 0.09 until early 2018, when it jumped past 0.10. This is a demarcation point in the life cycle of prostate cancer indicating there was prostate tissue somewhere in his body producing PSA and the consensus of the three cancer doctors is the cancer has come back. As of Oct 2018, his PSA climbed to 0.15 and was marching toward 0.2. This is another demarcation point. It means the cancer is biochemically recurrent and it means he will need to get salvage therapy or start palliative care.
Of course, nothing is simple. In early 2016, Kevin developed a tremor and started to have difficulty standing, then walking. These symptoms evolved into frequent dizziness requiring the use of a cane, then a walker and now a wheelchair. So far the problem is a mystery. He has two and sometimes three neurologists looking into it and so far they seemed to have converged on autonomic neuropathy, possibly originating in the cerebellum, possibly not. It may be terminal, but maybe not.
The lack of clarity about the neuropathy and the need for clarity to determine which cancer treatment is a conundrum. The more input we get, the more complex the options become.
This coupled with at least one more potentially fatal disease has made for an interesting time.
SIDE NOTE:
I am not worried and I am not particularly scared. In the worst case, it could be three years before one of the diseases takes me it could be 15 years. Then again, I could trip and fall down stairs tomorrow. I'm on the same journey as everybody else so I choose to be light-heart about it and I hope my friends and family can feel some measure of peace in knowing that.
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