It’s Tuesday and apart from my last one to one with my boss at Enabling Environments I also have an oncology call to take. So its a speedy breakfast and I am in front of the screen doing my last one to one. It goes okay and then I am waiting for my oncology call.

While I wait I arrange for the heating system to be serviced in September and order four new tyres for the car to be fitted on Saturday. The nice bit is that they are going to fit them on the drive so there is no boring hanging around at a fitters. So I continue to wait for the phone call.

The phone rang and we are into the oncologist call. Good news, neither the bone scan or the soft tissue scan is showing any new cancer. My existing tumors in my hips have not grown and are the same as they were on the last scan. The cancer in my back has not spread. Generally my blood test results are okay except the rise in my PSA level. For the second time in succession it has risen by 0.5, which is not good. It is this that is concerning so the plan is that I am to be reviewed in three months with new blood tests including testosterone. If my PSA has spiked again I will be scanned again and if they are clear two possible new drugs will be considered. The first is Abiraterone (Zytiga), the second is Ipiamumab (Yervay). Zytiga is a secondary treatment for advanced prostate cancer when the first wave of chemo or hormone restricting treatment begins to fail. Zytiga is administered with steroids and that makes me not keen. If I can I want to avoid steroids. The down side of the use of Yervay is that it is not usually used for prostate cancer and would be part of a clinical trail. Am I Guinea pig fodder I ask myself? That’s a question that will have to wait for an answer and may never need to be answered. So there it is, three more months of monitoring and then we might be doing something new. In essence its still as good as it gets.

I breathe a sigh of relief and grab some lunch before changing into my training gear. Now that I know that I have a three month window I feel more motivated to get myself properly fit. I get in to the garage and set off for an hours row at an average resistance. Its harder than it should be but I complete it.

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My jab from yesterday is still sore so I head for a post training bath to ease my body. I finally get to using my bubble bath bar. Its a real pleasure to ease myself into the bubbles and to relax for an hour.

There is tea to eat and then a blog to write, of course NCIS is on in the background. Tomorrow I’ve a review of TC specialist training preceded by a dash to the garage to get my partners car MOT’d. So life goes on in “as good as it gets mode”.