Monday, December 30, 2013
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Future of cancer treatment, or a pricey mistake?
CLICK HERE for the CNBC article. It is being reported at this link that Aetna moved "in August to refuse to cover proton-beam treatment for prostate cancer." It is also being reported here that "Blue Shield of California is dropping coverage of proton therapy for early-stage prostate cancer next month" and that "Cigna . . . is set to review their current policy of covering proton-beam therapy for prostate cancer in November."
As a man who received Proton Therapy for Prostate Cancer I can answer the question posed by CNBC. In my opinion, it is the future of cancer treatment.
As a man who received Proton Therapy for Prostate Cancer I can answer the question posed by CNBC. In my opinion, it is the future of cancer treatment.
Friday, June 14, 2013
Thursday, June 13, 2013
How to read the blog
Thanks for dropping by the blog, Proton Therapy For Prostate Cancer.
The blog is basically complete. We have the home page and 19 stand-alone pages with different titles as shown across the top of any page. The only page that will continue to be updated is the Post Treatment page.
I have broken the Phase 3: Treatment x-x up into four pages. All 39 treatments were completed by June 11, 2013.
If you are sensitive to the human body with its parts and functions, you might not should be here at all.
The blog is basically complete. We have the home page and 19 stand-alone pages with different titles as shown across the top of any page. The only page that will continue to be updated is the Post Treatment page.
I have broken the Phase 3: Treatment x-x up into four pages. All 39 treatments were completed by June 11, 2013.
If you are sensitive to the human body with its parts and functions, you might not should be here at all.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Message To Other Proton Therapy Patients
If you have completed Proton Therapy and would like to have your story added to the Personal Notes From Other Proton Patients page you can send it to the Blogmeister with the request to have it published.
Monday, April 15, 2013
It's "Show Time" at the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute
Monday morning. I'm up early. Nothing unusual about that. Today we drive to Jacksonville and move into the apartment at Third & Main, in preparation for beginning treatment on Tuesday.
Forming this blog has had a two-fold purpose. I want to have a record of my journey. I could have done this privately, but I chose to make it public so that it might be of some benefit to others who may walk this road after me. I want the blog to be categorized so that others who will actually travel this road will have an easy way to read about my experience with the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute in Jacksonville.
Presently there are three pages about the actual experience with UFPTI. Phase 1: Consulation tells about the one day visit there on March 5, 2013 and what Judy and I did then. Phase 2: Staging tells about my three day visit at the UFPTI on March 20-22, 2013 and all that took place during that visit.
Now I are moving into the actual treatment phase, which is Phase 3: Treatment. My plans are to write something on that page each day. If you want to follow along on this journey, that is the page that you will want to read over the next two months. The most recent post will always be at the bottom of the page.
Also I might add that I seem to be bad about going back and editing what I have already published.
Forming this blog has had a two-fold purpose. I want to have a record of my journey. I could have done this privately, but I chose to make it public so that it might be of some benefit to others who may walk this road after me. I want the blog to be categorized so that others who will actually travel this road will have an easy way to read about my experience with the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute in Jacksonville.
Presently there are three pages about the actual experience with UFPTI. Phase 1: Consulation tells about the one day visit there on March 5, 2013 and what Judy and I did then. Phase 2: Staging tells about my three day visit at the UFPTI on March 20-22, 2013 and all that took place during that visit.
Now I are moving into the actual treatment phase, which is Phase 3: Treatment. My plans are to write something on that page each day. If you want to follow along on this journey, that is the page that you will want to read over the next two months. The most recent post will always be at the bottom of the page.
Also I might add that I seem to be bad about going back and editing what I have already published.
Friday, April 12, 2013
I confess . . .
I am anti-surgery --- have been now for 65 years. I don't need to be tried in court over it. I am guilty on all counts. I have frequently said that I don't understand the terms "routine surgery" and "minor surgery." I do not believe that there is anything either "routine" or "minor" about cutting into my body, which is likely to make me bleed and hurt.
I watched my Father stay asleep for three days following open heart surgery. Of course, this brought on pneumonia. Taking breathing treatments and coughing was a real trip for him after having his chest cut open and his ribs separated. His brother, my uncle, caught a staph infection after heart surgery and stayed in the hospital for months.
More than 20 years ago I was having trouble with my left knee. I went to an orthopedist for an assessment of it. I sat on a table with my legs hanging down while he ran his hand over my knee.
"You have deizmocntfm," or whatever he called it. "We can do that next Tuesday."
"Do what next Tuesday?" I asked him.
"Operate on it," he replied.
I walked out of there thinking, hmmm, this guy is suppose to be a well respected orthopedic doctor and he advocates surgery without so much as taking an x-ray? Later, this same doctor would operate on the wrong knee of a friend of my daughter's. Also, later, I had one of his partners, a church friend and the hand specialist in the group, take a look at me. He took an x-ray in his office, and after reviewing the x-ray told me that if it were his own knee, he would not have surgery. So I'm thinking, hey, they really do have x-ray machines here. What a novel idea. I wonder why the knee specialist partner did not know that they had an x-ray machine in the office?
Since not having knee surgery I have been able to do such things as hike to Delicate Arch in my favorite state of Utah, climb Stone Mountain, walk on my treadmill until it automatically shut down at 99 minutes, climb up to Mt. LeConte, and just this week, I cut our one-acre yard with a walk-behind mower.
Now we fast-forward to this year and my encounter with the urologist. He said that there were things that they could do, such as a MRI or CT Scan, to gather more information, but that he didn't see the need . . . best just to rip the prostate out. Of course, this brought to mind my experience more than 20 years before with the orthopedist.
In the past year, one of Buford's brothers had robotic surgery to remove his prostate. About one month after that, he had another surgery to repair the damage done by the robotic surgery to his former hernia repair. Again, this reminds me of my guy . . . rip it out and there might be something that we can do later. Later? I wasn't wanting to sign up for the Surgery of the Month club.
Danny, Judy's cousin, had his prostate removed by robotic surgery in 2008. I am thankful to say that he reports complete success with it, having played golf just 10 days after the surgery.
So back to my opening statement: I am anti-surgery. It's just a personal thing with me. I only had one bad night following my diagnosis. That was the first night, when I lay in bed thinking about the prospects of prostate surgery and knowing that mentally, I was not up for it. I thought of my Father's experience with his urologist. He was sitting in the doctor's office with my Mother when the urologist told him:
"It would not bother me if you were sitting there right now wetting all over yourself."
To which my Father replied: "Well, it would bother me."
And so my Father opted for radiation treatment rather than surgery.
There are risks in most everything that we do. To me, it is all about calculating the risks. I have frequently said that the problem with any surgery is the fact that you can't undo it. What is done is done.
But the main thing for any reader here to understand is my opening confession: I am anti-surgery --- have been now for 65 years.
This post edited by Dora Lockhart
LINKS
FDA eyes increase in freak accidents during robotic surgery
Colorado charges doctor in problem-plagued robo-surgeries at Porter
Patients Scarred After Robotic Surgery
Intuitive Surgical Flags Robot's 'Potential Issue'
I watched my Father stay asleep for three days following open heart surgery. Of course, this brought on pneumonia. Taking breathing treatments and coughing was a real trip for him after having his chest cut open and his ribs separated. His brother, my uncle, caught a staph infection after heart surgery and stayed in the hospital for months.
More than 20 years ago I was having trouble with my left knee. I went to an orthopedist for an assessment of it. I sat on a table with my legs hanging down while he ran his hand over my knee.
"You have deizmocntfm," or whatever he called it. "We can do that next Tuesday."
"Do what next Tuesday?" I asked him.
"Operate on it," he replied.
I walked out of there thinking, hmmm, this guy is suppose to be a well respected orthopedic doctor and he advocates surgery without so much as taking an x-ray? Later, this same doctor would operate on the wrong knee of a friend of my daughter's. Also, later, I had one of his partners, a church friend and the hand specialist in the group, take a look at me. He took an x-ray in his office, and after reviewing the x-ray told me that if it were his own knee, he would not have surgery. So I'm thinking, hey, they really do have x-ray machines here. What a novel idea. I wonder why the knee specialist partner did not know that they had an x-ray machine in the office?
Since not having knee surgery I have been able to do such things as hike to Delicate Arch in my favorite state of Utah, climb Stone Mountain, walk on my treadmill until it automatically shut down at 99 minutes, climb up to Mt. LeConte, and just this week, I cut our one-acre yard with a walk-behind mower.
Now we fast-forward to this year and my encounter with the urologist. He said that there were things that they could do, such as a MRI or CT Scan, to gather more information, but that he didn't see the need . . . best just to rip the prostate out. Of course, this brought to mind my experience more than 20 years before with the orthopedist.
In the past year, one of Buford's brothers had robotic surgery to remove his prostate. About one month after that, he had another surgery to repair the damage done by the robotic surgery to his former hernia repair. Again, this reminds me of my guy . . . rip it out and there might be something that we can do later. Later? I wasn't wanting to sign up for the Surgery of the Month club.
Danny, Judy's cousin, had his prostate removed by robotic surgery in 2008. I am thankful to say that he reports complete success with it, having played golf just 10 days after the surgery.
So back to my opening statement: I am anti-surgery. It's just a personal thing with me. I only had one bad night following my diagnosis. That was the first night, when I lay in bed thinking about the prospects of prostate surgery and knowing that mentally, I was not up for it. I thought of my Father's experience with his urologist. He was sitting in the doctor's office with my Mother when the urologist told him:
"It would not bother me if you were sitting there right now wetting all over yourself."
To which my Father replied: "Well, it would bother me."
And so my Father opted for radiation treatment rather than surgery.
There are risks in most everything that we do. To me, it is all about calculating the risks. I have frequently said that the problem with any surgery is the fact that you can't undo it. What is done is done.
But the main thing for any reader here to understand is my opening confession: I am anti-surgery --- have been now for 65 years.
This post edited by Dora Lockhart
LINKS
FDA eyes increase in freak accidents during robotic surgery
Colorado charges doctor in problem-plagued robo-surgeries at Porter
Patients Scarred After Robotic Surgery
Intuitive Surgical Flags Robot's 'Potential Issue'
Sunday, February 17, 2013
[February 11, 2013] -- Ninety-nine percent of proton therapy patients believe they made the best treatment decision for themselves, according to a new data analysis of outcomes and satisfaction of prostate cancer patients. CLICK THIS LINK to read the Press Release.
LINK to the Executive Summary of the above
LINK to the Final Report of the above
LINK to the Executive Summary of the above
LINK to the Final Report of the above
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
If you are at all interested in Proton Therapy and how it is different from other external beam radiation this link is a "must read"
Date and time of this home page is when Judy and I first visited the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute
Purpose of this blog
It is my hope that men will find this blog through search engines and will learn that there is a lesser known alternative for Prostate Cancer Treatment. Although lesser known it is not new, with Loma Linda's Prostate Center CLICK HERE having been approved by the FDA in 1987.
Why aren't there more centers?
There are two issues that limit the development of these centers: size and cost. Each facility has a cyclotron to produce the beam, which weighs 200 tons. From the cyclotron, the beam passes along a beam line, which can be 100 yards long. This beam line reaches all the gantries, where patients are treated. The gantry itself is 3 stories tall, with the patient entering the treatment room on the second floor. The facility at the University of Pennsylvania has 4 gantries, one fixed beam room, and a research room, so you can begin to imagine the scope and size of such a project. Many facilities need to locate the proton center many miles away from the main hospital because of the space that is required. We are fortunate at Penn that we were able to acquire the space to have the facility on campus. Then there is the cost, which can be upwards of a hundred million dollars. This is obviously a limiting factor for facility development. Manufacturers have proposed smaller, single room facilities that will be less expensive and require less space, but these are still in the planning stages.Why this blog
It is my hope to be able to give back to others what some people have given to me in the days following my diagnosis of Prostate Cancer.
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