proton beam therapy

It is now almost five very fast months since I finished Proton treatments at Loma Linda in early May 2008. I posted here my outcome. (https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=35&m=1137192)
A couple of weeks I got my first post treatment PSA check point – PSA of 1.2ng/ml. I would have been quite happy with a result double that. I wrote a blog (see my signature below) of my experience during and post treatment. The blog offers more details and pictures.

Let me just give you some high lights. The only side effect I ever had from treatment was urinary hesitancy that I still experience. It is taken care of with one Flomax pill once a week. That is down from a daily pill during the last couple of weeks of treatment. All other functions are normal. Sexually I have never stopped being active. No tiredness, no incontinence and no bowel problems. I feel very good.

Once I realized prostate cancer is not a fast growing cancer. I had the time to study the different alternatives in treatments. It was clear every treatment had some risks and side effects. I looked at the statistics that started me down the path to treatment. Since most treatments are statistically close in curing PCa. That left the side effect risk. Most importantly this allowed me to look at what if I landed on the wrong side of the statistics. What if I was one of the sufferers who came to sites like this looking for a solution to a problem side effect?

The Internet provided one additional dimension to choosing a treatment path. I now had access to a collective experience. The more I spent time on forums lurking, reading and asking questions the more I came to realize there are three types of people on forums – those who have gone through treatment and are happy with the results, those who are looking for a solutions and those who have fallen prey to side effects and are looking for help. With the help of those who had gone before me I came to the conclusion was protons offered the least invasive treatment and the side effects appeared to be the easiest to repair. So far so good.

During my stay in Loma Linda I did run into one person from a town close to my home in Colorado. He had a reoccurring PCa after radical prostatectomy and was being treated with protons. Reoccurring cancers may happen no matter what the treatment. His comment was given the ability to do it over again he would not have chosen surgery but would have gone with proton.

Do your research come to a conclusion that best suits you and I am sure you will do fine.
I wish you well and good luck in treatments.