Am I There, Yet?

Good news!  My dad’s PSA count came back and it’s still low.  It’s at 0.90.  For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about…here’s the quick scoop.  My dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer about a year and 1/2 ago.  He’s not a typical prostate cancer candidate in that he’s only in his 50’s and he’s otherwise physically healthy.  The doctor’s went in to remove the prostate which should’ve cleared it up, but discovered that the cancer had spread into his lymph nodes and they were unable to surgically remove it.  Chemotherapy wasn’t an option because chemo only works in fast growing cancer cells and prostate cancer is a slow growing cancer.  Radiation wasn’t an option because that is only used for localized spots of cancer and because of the location of the cancer in Dad’s body, radiation would’ve done damage to major organs.  So, Dad’s been on hormone therapy for the past year +.  They keep checking his PSA score to make sure the numbers keep going down.  From my understanding, hormone therapy will eventually stop working because the cancer will build immunity to it.  Hormone therapy doesn’t fight cancer…it just keeps it from spreading for awhile.  The doctors can tell if it’s working by monitoring his PSA score.  The numbers have to stay low.  If the numbers start to go back up then that means the hormone therapy isn’t working.  So…the numbers are down and he’s doing great.  Woohoo!

Here’s a picture of me and my dad taken last month (’ve already shared this recently, but thought it was appropriate to share again!):

Bad news…my daughter is on day three of a high fever.  She’s complaining about headaches and a sore throat.  My son has florescent green boogers and has a deep chest cough.  (Sorry if too much information!)  Argh!!!

There’s been lots of cuddling in our house lately.  Thanks for your prayers!!!