Tuesday and my latest blood results finally came in at 1:20am so they were there when I woke up this morning. I was was not sure what to expect but was pleasantly surprised when i looked at them. My PSA had dropped more, my eGFR was up and the best its been since my kidney decided to play up, and my platelets were into the 200 zone. With PSA score of 3.1 it means that I have reduce my rechallenge baseline PSA by 69%. This last cycle (number 8) has produced a 10% reduction from the baseline using a 75% dosage. That is a good result I think. Tomorrow I have to decide whether to progress to Cycle 9 and under what conditions. At the moment it feels like the logic is well and truly in the arithmetic.
The lowest that my PSA has ever been is 0.2 in July 2020, can I get to that again? On average each cycle in the rechallenge has produced a reduction of 0.8 in my PSA. If I do two more cycles (the maximum I can do) then the expected reduction would be by 1.6, taking the total down to 1.5. So a range of 1.4 plus or minus 0.5 seems realistic. I would have taken this in December when my PSA was at 10 and rising.
Having spent time mulling over the results I make myself breakfast and the go to the garden and spend time with my new poetry collections and reflecting on the blood results. My partner returns from her visit to the gym and we decide to go to a garden centre for an afternoon scone and coffee. While sipping our drinks and devouring our scones we chat about the blood results. Its a tricky decision as the balance between the logic being in the arithmetic and “Quality of Life” is a complex one. The old arguments of logic versus the subjective feelings of the self surface and basically, as my partner points out, “only I can make the decision.” So I have until tomorrow afternoon to make up my mind. At the moment arithmetic as a way to long live seems to hold sway over me, but things could change.
On returning home I settle down to draft the blog and sort out which world cup football matches I will watch tonight. After last nights shock results see Paraguay and Morocco dump Germany and Netherlands out respectively any future games are more exciting. It seems anyone can knock anyone else out. Some how I cannot see France being dumped but Norway v Ivory Coast is trickier to call. There will be family tea and todays crosswords to do before the first kick off. After that I shall be staring at a screen until the defeats and victories come to an end and I can down my meds and go off to bed. Tomorrow is my decision day when my oncology review will decide if my chemo rechallenge continues. It is also the day that the tree and hedge folk come and do our hedges at the same time as they do our neighbours, so I shall be making hot beverages and sharing biscuits.
