I'm Baaaaak!

Wow! been gone from here for a while. Lot's of stuff been going on.
The Title of this whole Blog is "Random Thoughts from a Baby Boomer" and Ive been thinking about things from that viewpoint for a while now.
I'm now 63 years old and have had a fairly eventful but normal life up to this point. Planning on a bit more for sure!

As you may know by reading previous posts, I'm in the process of dealing with Prostate Cancer.
Until it entered my universe, I had little knowledge about it. As it turns out, it's pretty prevalent in men my age. It's been said the "more men, at age 80, will die WITH Prostate Cancer than from it". I guess my lack of knowledge was mainly due to the "threat potential" (or lack of it in my mind) of the disease. That is not to say that PC is not a threat, it is and can kill you though a process called metastasis. The Cancer can spread from the prostate, via the lymphatic system, to other parts of your body like the bones or brain. Part of the "staging"process in the cancer treatment cycle is to determine if it has gone extra-capsular. (moved out of the actual prostate gland) There is a term "clear margins" that applies to the post operation biopsy of tissue removed during the operation.
There were a number of post operation procedures on the table. Primary was anti-androgen treatment with a hormone suppressor called Leupride. Its job is to suppress the hormone Testosterone which is thought to "feed"the cancer. The regimen is one year on Leupride with shots given every three months. I'm on # 3 now. We started before the operation.
There are a number of potential side effects of Leupride; Impotense, weight gain, muscle loss, something called gynocomastia (man tits) and loss of libido or sex drive.
I've not experienced all of them but some are a bit of a bother. The loss of libido and impotence sort of go together. Wouldn't do much good to have a strong libido and and nothing to work with. LOL Oh! another one is HOT FLASHES! Boy, those are interesting. Out of the clear blue you start to sweat. I bit annoying sometimes. Thankfully, those have subsided.
On the up side, the PSA (prostate specific antigen, a marker for this type of cancer) is down to almost undetectable with normal blood testing. The idea is to have it stay in that range AFTER the Leupron has been withdrawn and has vacated my body. If so, Cancer Free! WOOT! time will tell.
Another of the recommended treatments on the table was pelvic radiation. A course of one treatment a day, five days a week for seven weeks. "Just to be sure" I opted to do the Leupron thing and see how that goes. I'm not big on radiation. Too many additional side effects and risks for my tastes.

One of the side effects that does bug me is the weight gain (about 20 lbs) and the loss of strength. In combination, it does impact my day. I got locked out of a house I was inspecting the other day and had to climb over a back fence to get back in because the Realtor had left and wasn't expected back for an hour or so. (the house was vacant) Oh Great! Now I have to sit here doing nothing for an hour or more! Then I remembered that the door to the back yard was open. I proceeded to TRY to climb the fence. It was comical. I'm not a little guy at 6 foot 2 inches and 260 pounds. Trying to get that over a 5 foot high iron gate was a struggle. I would have normally just grabbed the top and hoisted myself up and swung over. Not this time. I tried but couldn't even pull my self up far enough to swing a leg over the adjacent and lower block wall! I started laughing and that didn't help at all. I finally made it over and finished the inspection by the time everyone got back. Ahhh Well. This will pass.
Later All