Posted 12/7/2007 2:46 PM (GMT -8)
Hi Everyone,
Today is my husband “CJ’s” 50 th birthday – Saturday 8 th December, 2007. and the first anniversary of his diagnosis with prostate cancer last year. It rocked us to the core, especially hearing this news on his 49 th birthday. However now, 12 months later, and the next birthday is soooooooooo different. We are well recovered so thought I’d post a small update on this special of days. CJ says he is back to 95% now.
Although it has taken 8 months from surgery, lots of patience, trial and error, things on the “Levitra 20 mg when needed front”, are looking up ( so to speak ).. Although, I have no sense of humour when it comes to prostate cancer recovery, even our Doctor joked to me about CJ “enjoying his 50 th birthday due to the Levitra starting to work” and I actually laughed!! (at the Doctor’s joke ). This is unusual believe me! All is going well now with the oral meds so it looks like we may not need to consider this possibility of injections in future after all. Still daily signs of nerve recovery – twinges and things…. after 8 months. We found an improvement from six months onwards that was not happening at 3-4 months. For us, the “patience, patience” mantra has worked, and things are improving rapidly now at 8 months. Does not seem to be a "technical" problem anymore which is reassuring, so looks like our Doctor was right in his predictions of recovery.
In retrospect, it has been a very hard year overall, but today we are celebrating a wonderful thing – Recovery and a 50 th birthday cancer-free !! The PSA tests still scare me senseless at each test result (and will do so forever I think), but we all have to face that. Thanks “Swim” for your reassurance by email on the subject of PSA ranges … We have become advocates for prostate cancer awareness of course.
As a wife, I remember feeling so desperate this time last year. However, the best thing was finding this forum in January before the surgery, and therefore finding so many kindred spirits here who truly understand. It has been survivable for us, although the stories of others are always sobering, and we do not take life for granted. We feel very lucky, blessed and happy to be celebrating a wonderful 50 years of my husband’s life today. Having a party tonight with 30 people (family and close friends) down at the club. The cake has black and red icing (racing colours!). It will be a lovely day and evening.
We thank you all sincerely for all the information, prayers, love and support this year. We wish you all a wonderful Christmas season, and hold you all in our thoughts and prayers too.
Finally, HAPPY BIRTHDAY , my dearest Chris (“CJ”). Lana xxxxxxxx