Cancer – reasons for hope in the near future

[Verdinut]

Today is Monday April 6th and my surgery had been set for next Monday, April 13. That got canceled due to Coronavirus. I just got off the phone about an hour ago.

Surgery is now scheduled for June 25th. I certainly hope things are somewhat more like normal than they are now .

I hope and everyone hopes that by that date, things will be closer to normal for our moral and the world economy. Best wishes to you for an eventual full recovery.
Keep us posted.

 

[Gmoney]

Here's some food for thought (literally, pun totally intended).

There's plenty of evidence in support of claims that eating a lot of heavily processed foods (smoked, cured, etc.) can lead to colorectal cancer. I cut way back on my bacon or any other foods high in nitrites and nitrates after watching this video.

Man I love Bacon! I’ll eat 3 pieces with 3 eggs once a week with O-J or 2% milk. With that said both Mom and Dad passed cause of the big C. I know of a lot who passed cause of Cancer. I also know of a few who smoked cigarettes and died of natural cause go figure uhh.

 

[Pogre]

Man I love Bacon! I’ll eat 3 pieces with 3 eggs once a week with O-J or 2% milk. With that said both Mom and Dad passed cause of the big C. I know of a lot who passed cause of Cancer. I also know of a few who smoked cigarettes and died of natural cause go figure uhh.

I was a butcher for 30 years. The last 20 was spent managing the meat dept in a big chain grocery store. We were encouraged to cook bacon and sample it in the mornings and afternoons to get the smell going through the store. You can guess what I had for breakfast WAY too often for quite a while, lol. I love bacon and cured, smoked product in general. I just don't eat it as often as I used to.

 

[Mr._Clark]

Today is Monday April 6th and my surgery had been set for next Monday, April 13. That got canceled due to Coronavirus. I just got off the phone about an hour ago.

Surgery is now scheduled for June 25th. I certainly hope things are somewhat more like normal than they are now .

Sorry to hear that. I hope all goes well regardless of the bumps in the road.

 

[Swerd]

Very early tomorrow morning I head out for the hospital. My long awaited surgery (since last February) is scheduled for 8 am, but I have to check in at 6 am. I expect to be off-line for at least a day, but who knows, I'll have my phone with me, I might need some diversion. What better than to read the Coronavirus threads !

If all goes as planned, I should be able to go home the day after surgery.

For those of you who've noticed, TLS Guy and I share the same affliction, prostate cancer. And we are on a similar schedule. He is getting high-energy proton radiation this week, and I'm getting surgery – robotic surgery .

I wish the very best for TLS Guy! I'm still the cockeyed optimist about my own case. I simply can't wait to get it done already!

 

[STRONGBADF1]

Sending positive thoughts your way my friend!

 

[Gmoney]

Very early tomorrow morning I head out for the hospital. My long awaited surgery (since last February) is scheduled for 8 am, but I have to check in at 6 am. I expect to be off-line for at least a day, but who knows, I'll have my phone with me, I might need some diversion. What better than to read the Coronavirus threads !

If all goes as planned, I should be able to go home the day after surgery.

For those of you who've noticed, TLS Guy and I share the same affliction, prostate cancer. And we are on a similar schedule. He is getting high-energy proton radiation this week, and I'm getting surgery – robotic surgery .

I wish the very best for TLS Guy! I'm still the cockeyed optimist about my own case. I simply can't wait to get it done already!

Best of luck, Easy does it after you get home. Kick back slap in your Favorite 4K Blu-ray, Stream your favorite movie or lay down the tracks of your Favorite tunes.

 

[ryanosaur]

Very early tomorrow morning I head out for the hospital. My long awaited surgery (since last February) is scheduled for 8 am, but I have to check in at 6 am. I expect to be off-line for at least a day, but who knows, I'll have my phone with me, I might need some diversion. What better than to read the Coronavirus threads !

If all goes as planned, I should be able to go home the day after surgery.

For those of you who've noticed, TLS Guy and I share the same affliction, prostate cancer. And we are on a similar schedule. He is getting high-energy proton radiation this week, and I'm getting surgery – robotic surgery .

I wish the very best for TLS Guy! I'm still the cockeyed optimist about my own case. I simply can't wait to get it done already!

My thoughts are with you on this journey, my friend! May health and wellness be upon you.

 

[Out-Of-Phase]

All the best to you, Swerd.

 

[TLS Guy]

Very early tomorrow morning I head out for the hospital. My long awaited surgery (since last February) is scheduled for 8 am, but I have to check in at 6 am. I expect to be off-line for at least a day, but who knows, I'll have my phone with me, I might need some diversion. What better than to read the Coronavirus threads !

If all goes as planned, I should be able to go home the day after surgery.

For those of you who've noticed, TLS Guy and I share the same affliction, prostate cancer. And we are on a similar schedule. He is getting high-energy proton radiation this week, and I'm getting surgery – robotic surgery .

I wish the very best for TLS Guy! I'm still the cockeyed optimist about my own case. I simply can't wait to get it done already!

Good luck with your surgery tomorrow.

I had my second treatment with the proton beam machine today. So far so good.

A totally amazing machine. The process starts by splitting hydrogen atoms to generate the protons. These are accelerated in a giant circular cyclotron, to 60% of the speed of light. Then go through a collimator, which is three stories high to make a precise narrow beam of protons. They are then fed to the four treatment rooms. The beam is shifted between the rooms. It even shifts between rooms during repositioning. The techs tell you when you are next for the beam. When it is assigned to your room, the techs say, "we have the beam!". Then you hear the beam make its precise strokes. It is so precise that it literally pencils the target, like a child precisely coloring a picture. In my case it is aligned in four different approaches, two from the left and two from the right.

Each time you can hear it is "penciling" something roughly spherical. As it starts and ends with a very short pulse, but in between you can tell the "pencil strokes" are gradually getting longer and then shorter. I estimate it takes 90 to 120 seconds to "pencil" the prostate from each trajectory.

So precise positioning is crucial. I had four markers placed in the prostate when the rectal shield was placed, and some tattoos placed at the simulation session. The position for each session is done under Xray control.

The protons have to be accelerated to just the right speed for each approach. For those of you who remember the physics of Einstein's theory of relativity as you speed up an object it gets heavier. So as the protons are accelerated in the cyclotron they get heavier. So the computer accelerated them to just the right speed so they get to the correct mass to reach the intended target and no further. They release their energy in the target. If you could accelerate a tiny sub atomic particle like a proton to the speed of light it would be infinitely heavy.

I am totally amazed that anyone would develop such a complicated and massive machine to treat human disease.

 

[Verdinut]

Very early tomorrow morning I head out for the hospital. My long awaited surgery (since last February) is scheduled for 8 am, but I have to check in at 6 am. I expect to be off-line for at least a day, but who knows, I'll have my phone with me, I might need some diversion. What better than to read the Coronavirus threads !

If all goes as planned, I should be able to go home the day after surgery.

For those of you who've noticed, TLS Guy and I share the same affliction, prostate cancer. And we are on a similar schedule. He is getting high-energy proton radiation this week, and I'm getting surgery – robotic surgery .

I wish the very best for TLS Guy! I'm still the cockeyed optimist about my own case. I simply can't wait to get it done already!

All the best to you, Swerd.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Hey, missed your post, @Swerd. I hope it is going/went well.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Good luck with your surgery tomorrow.

I had my second treatment with the proton beam machine today. So far so good.

A totally amazing machine. The process starts by splitting hydrogen atoms to generate the protons. These are accelerated in a giant circular cyclotron, to 60% of the speed of light. Then go through a collimator, which is three stories high to make a precise narrow beam of protons. They are then fed to the four treatment rooms. The beam is shifted between the rooms. It even shifts between rooms during repositioning. The techs tell you when you are next for the beam. When it is assigned to your room, the techs say, "we have the beam!". Then you hear the beam make its precise strokes. It is so precise that it literally pencils the target, like a child precisely coloring a picture. In my case it is aligned in four different approaches, two from the left and two from the right.

Each time you can hear it is "penciling" something roughly spherical. As it starts and ends with a very short pulse, but in between you can tell the "pencil strokes" are gradually getting longer and then shorter. I estimate it takes 90 to 120 seconds to "pencil" the prostate from each trajectory.

So precise positioning is crucial. I had four markers placed in the prostate when the rectal shield was placed, and some tattoos placed at the simulation session. The position for each session is done under Xray control.

The protons have to be accelerated to just the right speed for each approach. For those of you who remember the physics of Einstein's theory of relativity as you speed up an object it gets heavier. So as the protons are accelerated in the cyclotron they get heavier. So the computer accelerated them to just the right speed so they get to the correct mass to reach the intended target and no further. They release their energy in the target. If you could accelerate a tiny sub atomic particle like a proton to the speed of light it would be infinitely heavy.

I am totally amazed that anyone would develop such a complicated and massive machine to treat human disease.

Are you done with this treatment now, or is/are there more to come? Best of luck to you too, @TLS Guy.

 

[Pogre]

Good luck Swerd. You've been in my thoughts a lot lately. Wishing you the best.

 

[Dan]

Swerd did well with the surgery. I met him in preop before going up to my job. I'll see him when he hits his hospital room before I leave for the day.

TLS very cool description of the proton beam. Funny ours doesn't have a three story tower but I'm sure Mayo has the fanciest model. It;s across the hall from me now where I sit in abdominal imaging. I hope it works well and there are no radiation enteritis effects.

 

[TLS Guy]

Are you done with this treatment now, or is/are there more to come? Best of luck to you too, @TLS Guy.

I have three treatments left, tomorrow, Monday and Wednesday.

 

[ryanosaur]

Continued positive thoughts for both of you!

 

[Swerd]

Hi all — it’s the Swerd poking right handed from my hospital bed. My left hand (the good hand) is occupied with an iv. And the pain drugs make me kinda loopy. Surgery is done & I’m ok.

Thanks for all the good wishes!

 

[Verdinut]

Hi all — it’s the Swerd poking right handed from my hospital bed. My left hand (the good hand) is occupied with an iv. And the pain drugs make me kinda loopy. Surgery is done & I’m ok.

Thanks for all the good wishes!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's good news. Did you have a trans-urethral resection?

 

[Swerd]

Radical Robotic Prostatectomy, it was completely removed.