Update: Now 84 months post proton beam therapy. PSA down to 0.4, Tamsulosin down to 1/day, no further side-effects, no other meds....
I just experienced gross hematuria 62 months post proton beam therapy for prostate cancer. First epsiode was in May, now it comes and goes -- hematuria for a couple days, small clots for a while, and...
I'm a 4 1/2-year survivor post proton beam therapy, and recommend it without hesitation. What matters more than Gleason score, IMHO, is your TNM stage. If the cancer is contained in the prostate,...
Woo-hoo! June (lounging seductively on Rex's desk, her green eyes flashing) says of the new Berna, "She's qualified... maybe too qualified." We can only fantasize for now......
Boy, like minds......
Well, it's the end of another year (just under 3 days in CST). Wilson & Nolan are weaving yet another thread into the Rex Morgan, M.D. story rug. Berna's concerns about Dex spending their ill-gotten...
Dexter expresses concern over Berna just putting her $6M->$1.5M ticket in her purse. If my wife did that, we'd never see it again. Also, I'm wondering if there might be a purse snatcher passing...
Now that Berna has seen her $6M become $1.5M after taxes and all, I'll bet she runs out and switches her party affiliation to Republican. I've got to admit that my first thought after she mentioned...
But don't forget, Berna bought two lottery tickets last week, so she might not need no steenking raise! She could use the proceeds to buy Rex his very own 3D IMRT setup, or whatever's in vogue by the...
Let's hope this isn't Friday in CST (Comic Strip Time). If so, it'll be another 250 days RT (Real Time) until Monday, when the medical profession gets back in business. Meanwhile, today, Berna (WTH...
It's no wonder this thread gets 435,876 hits a day!...
Stay tuned for some plot progress (ha!). As they part today, Rex tells Stu, "...we'll talk about treatment soon." I can't wait for that. (Literally -- my actuarial life expectancy is only 13.88...
My cynical gland (enlarged, but cancer-free) says some money changed hands during the "conference", but perhaps politics is different in comic-strip land....
Whoa! Action! Only one day after Stu arrived, Rex encounters Jason King's receptionist, whose expression changes from haughty-nasty to come-hither when she learns he's a doctor. She'll "see what she...
Today Rex is trying to get past Jason King's security nazis, and is about to prove he's a doctor. Tune in tomorow when we hear Rex ask, "Are you familiar with the DRE?" Edit - I can't believe the...
Uh-oh... Jason King is in trouble. Stu and Elsie think he's the leaker. Going to be tough to win an election with a felony charge hanging over him, but it wouldn't be a first......
Yes! Stu's prostate now has it's very own "Pacebook" page (a pretty thin disguise, if you ask me), with over 2,000 "pacepals" already. Ooooh -- that domain name is available......
I noticed "Graham", but that's also my urologist's name, which masked the artist's name in my brain. There is a resemblance, though, so maybe he's following in Alfred Hitchcock's footsteps. Today we...
Good guess, but only if he's doing a 3-way with Stu's daughter, who TEXTED (emphasis theirs) Graham's (Rex has another patient, it turns out) daughter, who told Graham (and probably every other...
Either near death or well into it. The whole issue of keeping things like this secret is a little puzzling to me. Sh*t happens, after all, and unless you're a sleazeball politician (forgive the...
Pumpkin is looking a little pale today ("I... I'm fine, Diane! Just a little tired!") as she learns of the leak and Stu's frame of mind ("OMG, how can I pin this on Diane?") and heads into Stu's...
At last! Rex wonders if maybe Rose ("Pumpkin") might have told someone. In my paper Stu says no, adamantly, but I'll bet Jeff's paper says something else......
They saved some ink today by colouring everything pink, apparently to celebrate National Cancer Awareness Month, and even put one of the little pink ribbon thingies in the final panel inscribed...
Becka seems a mere shadow of her former (ca. 9/13) self these last few days. Does your paper offer any clues, Jeff?...
I'll bet we haven't seen the last of that traffic light......
Finally, someone with some common sense -- Stu's lovely travelling companion, Diane... I'd tell everyone what happened, but my paper doesn't carry the entire strip, as does Jeff's....
Torpid? Is that like turgid? I would think that part of "Healing Well" means doing the best with what you've got, and certainly maintaining and exercising a sense of humor is part of that. As is, of...
Your wife is definitely correct! You're very creative with a great sense of humor, sick though it may be. I'm enjoying the heck out of this, and I wouldn't be surprised if Rex's writer was also... I...
Yeah, it was that mysterious phone call in the last panel of the 8/11 strip... I like the idea of Bunny. Eventually Carlos will find out and be terrified, thinking it's an STD and that he'll get it...
Not to worry. You've still got your memories.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78Ruh0ewBVo ...but not for long: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yN-6PbqAPM...
Jeff, whatever your other problems might be, you've certainly maintained a fine eye for feminine pulchritude. I'm going to send my compliments to the artist on this one......
The opponent's aide says "...it came directly from someone close to the mayor." I guess we can hope that Pumpkin is about as close as you can get......
In the "Who spilled the beans?" pool, I'm betting on Stu's wife, Rose (aka "Pumpkin"). He's consumed by his job, to the point where (as Jeff pointed out) he's got no time for her. I've been told, and...
Wait until Stu reads the latest church bulletin....
Of course he has evidence -- it's in over 300 newspapers in the country! An interesting history of the strip here: http://www.toonopedia.com/morgan.htm which begins: "As his motive for creating Rex...
You got that right. I'm betting he'll turn out to be a good guy, but there'll be other bad guys (and girls) to make the story more ineresting. And longer....
I suspect the writer has gotten lots of advice and feedback from the PCa community. This story can go on for a loooong time. Jeff reads a very good newspaper. Most Sunday comics have a two-panel lead...
Your paper is a lot more interesting than mine......
"Someone close to you..." Jeff, you're psychic. Now he can come clean, be successfully treated, get the public to rally behind him, and win the election by a landslide. All this has to happen by, of...
Woo-hoo! A reporter from The Herald is bugging Stu asking how he's feeling! Taking bets now on who the leaker is (not Stu, or at least not yet)....
I'd like to believe he decided to do a little more research before continuing, after the avalanche of letters he got. Maybe we should send some letters asking how Stu's doing......
Not only do you have to decide between RP or RT, you need to investigate the different flavors of RT. I was lucky to hear about proton beam therapy soon enough to look at it pretty thoroughly, and...
Today Stu is anxious; he "can feel this thing growing inside me." I've seen this anxiety in patients I've met -- it's a big reason for them to choose surgery, because of the psychological boost they...
Yeah, it looks like he's explained all the options, consequences, outcomes, etc., just in time for dinner. Time dilation has just become time compression. At least he's not rushing to cut or zap the...
Oh boy, things are moving. I think today Rex just p-- er, upset all the surgeons....
She's got a mean look about her; now going to get even meaner after that phone call....
I monitored my PSA without really knowing why for about 18 years. It slowly rose from 0.9 to 2.98, then jumped to 4.6 in a year. That triggered the biopsy, which came back 3+3=6, T1c, which triggered...
A cookie and my undying admiration. And we talk about the stock market for a while......
That's why I wrote the writer. He had a great opportunity to educate, and I think he's blowing it. Coupled with the recent flurry of publicity against PSA testing, the media is doing men in their 50s...
Oh, you're right. I forgot about the "close, well-meaning friend". Gotta be her. I figure the phone call will last a couple of weeks, while Stu and Rex talk about something completely unrelated in...