Posted 12/13/2014 2:31 PM (GMT 0)
You all have been wonderful over the last 20+ months! This is my 1000th post on the forum, so I've conversed with a lot of people in less than 2 years here.
I came here April 16th of 2013 in a deep funk, the evening of my diagnosis, having just been told of my G9 with PNI and high % involvement. So, not a good outcome from the biopsy. I was in that mode where you can't breathe, and sitting up at 3am looking at nothing but discouraging info on the great interwebs. However, that searching did finally lead here.
Turning to this forum, in a short time many of you chimed in to help me get a solution mindset going, suggest possibilities, suggest questions to ask the doctors, and to give me a sounding board to check what I was being told. So many that are still here, Tall Allen, Cajun Jeff, PeterDisAbleard, SteelGuy, StarTech, Southern Comfort, so many I've actually had the pleasure to meet through GFMPH or otherwise.
That thread, "Well fudge, new member, Gleason 9 (5+4)" got pretty long, and I still look at it today sometimes to think through the history, from panic to plan! The process in that thread seems to help others in similar situations, too.
It was a terrifying time, yet slowly through the tests, plan development, and finally into treatments, it did indeed become my "new normal", and is to this day. I have almost another year and a half remaining on hormone therapy, something I'd never even heard of before my diagnosis, though I'm at peace with it.
My PSA has been undetectable since the end of radiation therapy Aug 2013, and I'm grateful daily for that. I just had another little side-effect scare and the tests all came out clean there too. So, there's nothing else to do but enjoy life with a clear mind for the next 4 months (until it's PSA time again, sigh).
At this Christmas time, it's a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the many ways we've been blessed, and even blessings coming from a very dark diagnosis. We can never know just what the future holds, but looking up and looking forward is my path for peace through this storm.
Thanks again to all the guys and gals that have provided so much encouragement. I've been pretty transparent on here, posting some very dark thoughts and also some very upbeat thoughts. There's nowhere else, nowhere, that I've found where we can so readily talk about the unique issues we face.
So, 1000 posts. It is so gratifying to share my experiences with the new folks, especially the high risk ones, that are where I was at the beginning. To see people come here with their hair on fire, not knowing which way to turn, worried spitless, and finally to see them come around to solutions, options, rationale discussion, and even begin to help others, this is why 1000 posts. Paying it forward whenever possible.
Here's support, love, peace, and best wishes for positive outcomes to everyone here!
Jerry