How This Trip Began

This story began in June 2006 when Paul decided to go to the VA for "cheaper" medications (This turned out to be not worth the effort). Long story short, the VA gave him a full set of blood tests. It turns out that his PSA (prostate specific antigen) had risen significantly from the previous reading in November 2005, so we went to see a urologist. Call him #2 (#1 was a "blip on the radar"). #2 did a biopsy last August which turned out to be negative. In January 2007 Paul had another PSA test. It had risen again. Although the PSA was still in the "normal" range, the rate of increase was too high. We have learned that this is a red flag in the world of prostate cancer.

Not wishing to give #2 another opportunity to miss anything that might be there, we took a 5+ hour (each way) trip to Ventura CA to see a well known radiologist who specializes in color doppler ultrasound targeted biopsies of the prostate. A targeted biopsy was taken and this time the results were positive. On February 20, 2007, Paul was diagnosed with prostate cancer. We think that we caught it at a relatively early stage but we're not sure.

Thus began a month of intense research into all the available treatment options. Uro #3 (#2 is now history) said Paul was not a candidate for surgery, at least by him (We weren't considering surgery anyway), but that he was a candidate for various types of radiation treatment. We considered seeds, both temporary and permanent, as well as external radiation guided by various methods. Over the past month, we've met with one medical oncologist who specializes in prostate cancer and three radiation oncologists. In addition, we met with uro #3 twice. It's been quite an education.

Which brings us to the present -- On April 1, we'll be heading to Loma Linda University Medical Center, in Loma Linda CA, for nine weeks of proton treatment.

http://www.llu.edu/proton/

Proton therapy is a form of radiation which has been reported to have fewer side effects and is acknowledged by the physicians with whom we spoke to be as effective as other forms of radiation in treating prostate cancer. Paul has spoken to a number of men who have been through this treatment for prostate cancer at Loma Linda and all, without exception, report good results (in some cases years down the road) with few side effects. We hope to be part of that group.