The lead up to chemotherapy

My cancer after eight years became aggressive on September 18. I had a vomiting attack which I initially attributed to a virus; however I had another one on September 22. That same day I went to see my oncologist.  The PSA drawn that day indicated that Zytiga had failed. He started me on Xtandi. In addition I complained about my back hurting; he decided I should have a CT scan. That scan showed that I had an abnormal amount of  ascites fluid in my abdominal cavity. We decided to have the cavity drained which happened a few days later on October 1. They removed 5.5 liters of fluid from my cavity.  That process is pretty interesting. I was awake through all of it and talked to the doctor and the nurse. At one point near the end they actually tipped me over so all the fluid would run down toward the  tap needle. In addition the sudden increase of ascites caused the doctor to suggest I stop  Xtandi and begin chemotherapy as soon as possible which I did on October 8. I will have the therapy, which takes about 90 minutes, every three weeks.  They are not sure how many sessions I will need.

 The only side effect I am having is a constipation diarrhea problem. I believe I will have this straightened around in the next day or two. What I will say is that MiraLAX really works on constipation.

The other thing that happened is that my  doctor thinks that I have about a year to live. I have announced this to my family and friends and of course they have found that hard. I have known for some time that this day would come and I am actually more prepared for it than I thought. I do not expect, however, to sit around and wait to die. I have many curiosities and enjoyments and I intend to do them until I am physically or mentally no longer able. I will comment more on the emotional side of this in future posts.

One last thing -- I will go to Rochester clinic for a thorough examination of my case in early November. They have asked for a complete set of records including slides and images back to 2007. I think a lot of us are waiting to see the results of all the tests there. One thing I have not liked is that I have had to cancel some of the speeches that I had been asked to give. But so it goes.