Reflecting on the posts from the past.

Scrolling through the PCa home page clicking on random threads, came acrosscyclones zombie page and started reading without realizing it was a zombie thread. What struck me was the sadness If felt upon seeing names who are long gone. I read more of the old posts from back in the day. So many warriors are gone now.

We all found this site seeking information and found it and lots of it but also found friendship. We found brothers and sisters. We laughed and we cried. Some of us met. Some never will but the focus was always about HEALING WELL and supporting each other. I don’t come here often anymore. I rarely post or reply to posts. I need you guys. We need each other.

When I first joined up here, after my diagnosis in 2013, I was still in my 40s ...

My dad ~ also a prostate cancer patient ~ shared the same doctors I did.

I remember when I first met Dr. Kwon and he asked me, "Do you feel like the youngest guy in the waiting room? Do whatever it takes to find the support you need, and I am here for you ~ please call me, anytime."

This website provided the fellowship and sense of a shared experience that I needed.

There was excitement brimming ~ as new breakthrough medications and treatments such as "the early chemotherapy treatment plan" and XTANDI and ZYTIGA were becoming approved.

We now celebrate the approval of PLUVICTO, in the same way!

I found encouragement ~ and stories of treatment success. I had a case with complexities and there were others here who handed me a life jacket and gave me a seat in the lifeboat & helped ME find an oar.

Day by day, I learned to "row" ALONGSIDE them ~ tentatively ~ slowly ~ but surely.

Over time, this supportive image came to me, like a REVELATION:

We all row together!

I have lost comrades here whom I never met in person, who became my battle brothers, in every sense of the word "brother."

Each time we read or post here ~ or welcome a new member ~ we honor those who blazed the trail before us.

Keep the beacon of hope lit ~ reach out in ways that you can ~ share a first-hand experience when it can help another compadre ~ and remember that all of us simply need a few words to lift us up, now and again!

If you're a new member here, and have never posted before, it's a great day to take that leap and write your first post!

And remember ~ one day at a time ~ keep rowing, the best you can!

In fellowship,
CYCLONE ~ # Iowa State University

Todd, you are right, we need each other. The help that has been both given and received as a result of the functioning of this forum is of a magnitutde that is mindboggling.
I have been to a few, 3 i think, GFMPH gatherings and as a result have had the chance to put names to faces and made friendships that i feel will last far beyond our normal lives, if that makes sense.
What i would have done the last 7 years since my diagnosis without those friendships, i have no idea.

I have also had the honor and privilege of knowing three of the finest among us who have passed in the last 3 years, One of those has been, for me one of the truest, purest, most unconditional friends i could have imagined.

So yes we need each other, to stay anchored, and for some to help us to handle whatever the future may hold. Sometimes its sad, but i try to hold on to or focus on, the great things that have come from this place for me, the sad stuff is part of the circle of life, that we all just have to deal with in one way or another

This is a real disease, and though we mostly focus on diagnostics and therapies here, we are all real people. Real people, with real hopes, fears, joys, successes, and yes... occasional failures.

The support groups, like this one, are so important to us. Who outside of those in these communities can possibly understand? Who else can really know the soul-crushing fear, the stomach-churning wait for test results, the occasional tears of relief at good results, or the other tears of despair at poor results? We share much.

My situation has been stable for the last 3 years, and I'm hoping/expecting it to remain so. And yet... in October I get another every-6-months PSA test. And, it's already a bit on my mind. The day or two waiting for results will be an effort to simply think about other things until the email shows up.

I also don't visit here very often. The recent studies, the most recent diagnostics, therapies, and sequencing are not as present for me as they were for a while. It's been nine years since my primary therapy, and since meeting some terrific people from this forum at my first GFMPH gathering, and a Caribbean cruise many of us took together that year.

All the best to all here. We do need each other. And even the tenuous connections we make with these occasional forum messages are real, and valuable. I treasure the friends I've come to know here over these years.

Yep.