7 years today & a bit of a vent

Hi everyone, it is now 7 years since i had my RP, I feel good even though my PSA is slowly rising, i am doing all the normal things that I did before, my next PSA is in October.

I wonder what life is all about sometimes, my wife and I have worked hard in our lives to get where we are, we owe nothing, and we are financially secure, now after all the stress of my Pca, my dear wife is going through kidney failure, which has ended all our plans of future travel now, and curtailed our lifestyle dramatically, it is sad that in our twilight years, we are hamstrung by poor health, and having the financial comfort really means nothing if you can not enjoy it.

Sorry, just feel a bit down.

Regards Mal.

Mal,
Congratulations on 7 years and so sorry that your wife is experiencing health issues now, too. I wish you both joy as deal with this challenge.
Vent away. I think we all need to do that and what better place to do that than here with the only people who truly understand... Health, wealth, and time are all relative. Take care,

Mal,

Yep, that sucks. Sorry.

Is your lifestyle being curtailed because she is too sick for activities or is she mostly tied down by her treatments (dialysis, etc.)?

Mal, thanks for sharing. Most of all our best wishes for Mrs. Mal. I hope things improve for her.

Jack

Mal,
Completely empathize with your thoughts on your problem and now your wife. It really stinks! I hope there is something that can be done to stabilize you wife's kidneys. Best to both of you.

Don

Hi everyone, thanks for the replies, was feeling a bit down, my wife has had a bad year, she had a stroke in January, which she came through with no after effects, thank goodness, but unbeknown to us she had also developed vasculitis which badly affected her kidneys, she is being looked after by one of the top kidney specialists, who has told us that if her kidney function does not recover, dialysis will be the next step. We have had a good life, travelled a lot, and have 9 grandchildren, and great memories, so we have a lot to be thankful for I guess.

Thanks to all of you.
Regards Mal.

Mal,

Sorry to hear about your wife..my prayers will go out to you and your wife that you will find a way to regain your health to a point where you can travel...or at least spend some of those millions....

For me...being younger...words like retirement don't have the same meaning as they once did.

Jerry

Mal, sorry to hear about this extra kick in the groin. Prayers going out for Y'all.
Bill

Mal, my good friend, it made me sad to read your post. I do understand, and I feel bad for you and your wife.

Health is the one factor in one's life planning that we have no accurate or sure way of estimating of how things are going to turn out.

I know of so many people in real life, that worked hard all their lives, had good health, and within a year or two of finally making retirement, and all set to travel the world and to enjoy things, ended up either dying quickly, or being plagued with bad health, either the husband or wife, or even both. Kind of sucks, so I empathize with your sadness and frustration.

Sorry that you wife is still dealing with the kidney failure issue. That would be a damper on things if she ends up needing the dialysis. Hope it doesn't come down to that, for both your sakes.

Cheer up, you have a good life, a good wife, and good family and friends, including we here at HW, so you never have to feel like you are dealing with this alone or entirely on your own.

Hope and trust that things will improve for both of you.

You have my thoughts and prayers, of course.

David

Mal,

You got 12 years of life on me, and this juncture in my life, that sounds good, I hope I can achieve that same goal, though I have serious doubts. However, I am all about quality of life, not quantity.

You got a good marriage and a good family, those are the two things, outside of my personal faith, that I value the most in this world. Yes, I have been a lot of places, done most of the things I wanted to in this world, but my family is my legacy to me. Everything else is just frosting on the cake.

My wife has her own health issues, but nurse make the worse patients, and she keeps (or thinks she is) hiding most of them from me, but you can't be married for 40 plus years and not know how your other half is really feeling and doing.

She's there for me, I am there for here, we don't do the 50-50 thing, we have always done the 100-100 percent thing, and we work our issues and ordeals as a team.

I am sure you wife deeply appreciates your devotion and care to her current health situation, as much as you did when dealing with the worse of your PC problems.

Are you seriously considering SRT at this point? Kind of missed out on some of your current thinking. The good news, with your rise, is how long it has taken to reach this point. Some would say that is a plus, with the hopes of SRT doing you some good Least you haven't used up that last curative card yet.

Just weigh in the risks of radiation damage to the decision equation, that's my only advice that I can give from first hand knowledge.

The head VA Oral Surgeon for the state of SC, who now refers to me as the "Radiation Man", said he has never met anyone, ever, with as much combined radiation damage as I suffer. He's amazed that I am still alive from it all, and is fearful that more future damage will manifest as the result of undergoing two such major radiation events in a fairly short passage of time.

I still believe SRT is of good value to many, if they aren't pulling the trigger too soon, however, they simply need to be informed of the real risks, both short and long term.

Personally, I would like to see you reporting here when you are 84. If that were the case, that would mean we would both still be alive, lol.

Cheer up my friend.

sorry mal, I looked to see if you had had srt, and missed it in your signature. then ht would be the next likely course for you. with your age being a factor, perhaps some of the known side effects wouldn't be as much a bother to you as it might be to a much younger man. your call, of course.

regardless, I am here for you, or privately via e-mail if you wish. you can always talk to me