Scott Goodwin who periodically has been writing about his journey taking chemotherapy has given us a very moving update. Sadly, Scott is not doing well physically, but he is continuing his valiant fight against this insipid disease. – JTN
I thought I would send a much overdue update on my progress with chemo, etc. I have had 15 chemo treatments with Taxotere. Now my psa is rising, slowly at first and then more rapidly. Chemotherapy is no longer effective.
As I am sure some of my fellow brothers in the fight can attest, chemo has a cumulative effect. During the initial few treatments I felt great, but as time went on it took a bigger toll on my body. When my psa doubled and my quality of life became an issue for me, I had a very frank talk with my Oncologist. In the end, I decided to halt treatment.
So, where do I go from here? For the last two years, I have been seeing an Oncologist at Duke University because I knew I would find my self in this situation at some point in the future. My decision was to go into a clinical trial when I reached this point.
My PSA is currently 7.7 with a doubling time of about six weeks. This doubling time is scary stuff.
My wife and I met with our Oncologist at Duke about two weeks ago. The news is to be eligible for the clinical trial I need to show signs of disease progression on either a bone scan or a CT scan. I had both scans done yesterday at Duke and frankly; I do not expect to see anything on these scans. The next scans that I have may tell a different story.
I do not know if some of you feel this way, but as long as I was being treated, somehow I felt like I had control over the cancer. Now, as I am only on Hormone therapy, I feel that the cancer has been set free to grow.
Clinical trials are my last defense. I feel helpless just having to wait for disease progress