That was PSA anxiety, that was

January 28, 2008

Well, had my second Zoladex shot in November last

year, which stung a bit more than the first – maybe because I’ve

gone on a full scale weight loss program and am now down 20 kg (say 44 lbs or a

bit over 3 stone depending on your place of residence) so there isn’t

much fat to plant the depot.

My PSA in November was 1.20 ng/ml, which was pretty

good going, but the December one got me into a bit of a state because it was

1.50 ng/ml. It was ridiculous of me to be concerned, because I know that that

kind of variance is within the normal range of PSA tests, but I have periods of

sadness – not quite depression – which I think are associated with

the hormone therapy and was in the midst of one of these periods when I got the

news. Added to that I had just read the abstract of the new study by Strum (but

hadn’t got a hold of the full report) that seemed to indicate that there

was a substantial survival advantage for men who went below 0.05 ng/ml on ADT

and I was a long way off that!

Of course once I got out of the ‘black dog’

mood and once I read the full abstract, I realised that nothing had really

changed and so waited patiently for my next PSA test, the results of which I

got today – 0.60 ng/ml. That’s more like it. Maybe I’ll make

it to twenty years after all – if the heart failure doesn’t ‘cure’

me. It has been awfully hot here this summer – temperatures of up to 42C

(that’s about 108F for you non-metricated folk) and that really knocks me

around – thank goodness for air-conditioning.

I’m having one more Zoladex shot next month and

then, if there is another downward blip, I intend giving it a rest (with the

blessing of my oncologist) to see what happens.

But it is amazing how much power “PSA anxiety”

still has after all these years : - )

All the best

Terry Herbert

I have no medical qualifications but I was diagnosed

in ‘96: and have learned a bit since then.

Dr

“Snuffy” Myers : " As a physician, I am painfully aware that most of the decisions

we make with regard to prostate cancer are made with inadequate data "

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