We had a late appointment with the urologist last night. I will say that I like this doctor. He appears to really care about all of Mike’s health issues and isn’t just focused on one aspect right now. He is going to refer Mike to a pulmonologist next week to try and pin down why Mike is wheezing and coughing (which has been going on for two years now.)
On the cancer front- it is a good news, bad news type of scenario. They use a Gleason Scale to rate prostate cancer. 1 being a docile cancer 5 being aggressive. Mike is a 4. Non-treatment isn’t an option because apparently when prostate cancer spreads it goes one place to the bone.
Surgery isn’t an option either. The cancer cells are clustered in one area and that sits low. It would be quite invasive to have surgery according to the doctor, doing more damage than good.
Freezing is out as is what they call seeding. In freezing they go in and shoot a freezing liquid on the cells causing them to wither and die. But, the side effects to this treatment aren’t good, therefore not the best option.
In seeding, they implant these radioactive pellets in the gland. But again, there are post-complication problems that come up that will only be corrected by surgery. The seeds stay in the gland forever and therefore more complications can happen at a later date.
Looks like the only option is radiation. 5 days a week for 8 weeks. The drive is the biggest factor. The only place that can do this therapy is over an hour from our home. That’s a lot of driving for him and a lot of gas consumption. he can take my car which will use less gas, but he figured out it will also put over 2,300 miles on my car in a very short time frame.
On the Kodie front- we received an unpleasant surprise last night. The estimate for this surgery (which I figured would be about $300.00) was way over my estimation. Because it is such an unusual surgery, the cost right now (without any complications figured is $580.00!) I hate to be stuck on costs right now, but this is really going to hurt us during a time when we can’t actually afford it. I’m so bummed and I will go in today and talk to the office manager and see what I can arrange. We have been told without this surgery, bad things will happen to Kodie over time. We do not want that at all.