Early Saturday morning my blood results come in and they pose me a question, ‘are they good enough to continue the chemo rechallenge?’ Its a nice problem to have but I’m not sure how I am gong to work through it. I need to give it time and I need to see if going back on the steroids is going to give me any more energy to continue with. Its too early to know this and I need to use my chemo rechallenge holiday to monitor my well being and see how I am by the 1st of July. So I have some breathing space to see how I am and make a decision about more chemo.
My chemo rechallenge base line PSA was 10. so my current PSA of 3.4 represents a 66% fall in the six months of the chemo rechallenge. Is this is this good enough to increase my survival time? I do not know. The real kicker is that no one knows. The research reviews would say this is a significant fall but it is not possible to predict whether or how quickly the prostate cancer will re assert itself as shown by a rising PSA. At the end of the night I take my meds and go to bed hoping for sleep and more energy.
So I go to bed late with a conundrum and the result of the Scotland v Morocco world cup game. Scotland lost to 78 second goal! When I wake up in the morning at 10 o’clock the family are out and about apart from my eldest daughter. It takes me time to get up and get going, I have little energy and it is exhausting doing the ordinary things like dress and eat. I make breakfast, take my meds and begin to draft the days blog. It feels like I’m not going to be much use today, I certainly won’t make the Poetry Stanza meeting this afternoon, which is a shame as I miss the group and the poetry but I am how I am at the moment and need to keep things manageable.
As the day moves on I find I have more energy so by the time the family return from the the trip to the local Tropical Bird Garden I’m up lunch and some gardening with the older grandson. We plant some tomato plants and re-stake the sunflowers. Mid afternoon, while I rest on the garden swing seat the family go to the local shop and return with a try of plants for me to plant into an ornamental pot. With this done I hang a newly planted hanging basket and tidy everything away. Time to retreat to the recliner and watch some Paw Patrol with the grandchildren.
The family eat ta together and then the bedtime routines kick in for the grandsons. They have had busy days and go to sleep immediately they go down. The adults relax for a while but its not long the parents go off to bed hoping to get a full nights sleep. I and my partner watch a world cup football while doing other things. I order over shirts and T shirts in anticipation of a warm spell coming along. With the match over there chores to do, meds to take before going to bed.
