2020 Friday — Evening Walk

Just after eating our dinner, Mr. Fun asked if we wanted to walk through the neighborhood. My response was an immediate “Yes.” So we cleaned off the dining table and cleared the mess we made. Then we put some dog “baggies” in our pockets and put the leashes on the pups and we were gone. It was still warm enough that we didn’t need to wear a jacket, so I tied my sweatshirt around my waist, and we were out the door.

Earlier in the day we had headed to Mr. Fun’s medical appointment at Kaiser and talked at length with the Prostate Coordinator about the particular plan Mr. Fun’s doctor, who is a urologist and an oncologist, has designed for us. This plan involves a hormone therapy using Lupron, then in summer doing a repeat of bloodwork and lab tests (CT scan, bone scan, etc.) and then surgery in September. The Lupron shrinks the cancer and almost kills it, but does not cure it, and it does kill the testosterone, and testosterone is the major food that feeds prostate cancer.

Mr. Fun’s lab work reveals that there is no cancer in the bones, and no cancer in the lymph nodes, except for one lymph node that is in question.

The unusual aspect is that it is an unusually large lymph node AND that it is outside of the prostate area. It is at the top of the pelvis and at the bottom of the abdomen and in a very difficult place to biopsy. The lymph node is blocked by the spine and by the aorta blood vessel that is the main flow of blood from the heart through the body and it divides into two branches at the pelvis that supply blood to each leg.

That one large lymph node can be enlarged because of aggravation caused by the prostate biopsy done on April 15. Dr. Williams explained on the phone Wednesday that doing surgery to remove the prostate would be no good if the cancer has jumped outside of the region right around the prostate. The injection of Lupron will shrink all cancer in the prostate region and in that enlarged lymph node and that will reveal whether or not that lymph node has cancer.

Our question was and is “if the lymph node shrinks, how will we know if the lymph node has cancer or was just aggravated by the biopsy?” The answer is “by more testing.” We are guessing that a normal, non-cancerous lymph node, that is enlarged from aggravation will gradually go back to normal size, but if the node is cancerous, it will shrink and shrivel like a dying organism, and lab tests will reveal that.

So the hormone therapy has started as of today.

Good night from Southern California,
Rosie (& Mr.Fun), aka Carol
and Chloe & Mitzi