Talk Cancer

Question:

Of course, it’s always nice to have an ocean on one side and mountains on the other.  Fishing in and around Cincinnati usually involves a float and housr of sheer boredom.  I haven’t seen a snowmobile in 20 years.  And the last time I tried windsurfing on the Ohio River, I almost got hit by a barge.

The many reasons I left the eastern US (AL, FL, DE, NY, OH) include too much flat private land, and I’ve always hated and refused to live in cities. Even growing up in interior Alabama, I found plenty to do that kept me moving every moment I wasn’t in class. Even my summer jobs were aerobic, and accommodated at least 50 hours a week of playing grabass with my friends in the city pool. My grabass now costs much more, but the mindset was established as a (younger) kid. And even at our age and in the eastern U.S., there are plenty of opportunities for active lifestyles, both hedonistic (sports and exercise) and altruistic (community projects). Two of the scrappiest, leanest, fittest dynamos I know are recovering heart pts who spend hours in the gym 4-5 days a week warming up the equipment, the track, and the pool … when they’re not dodging barges in the Columbia River. I.P.

Response:

IP, You are one who really enjoys life, and that is great. Yet, many of us have fallen into the work, work, work, watch a little TV and hit the sack. Only to do it all over again tomorrow.  I certainly do not know anything about Bob C’s life, but have given some generalizations.  I hope you have motivated some of us to do a little more.  I am active, but certainly not like you have been.  Actually, yesterday when the dog came to me and wanted his walk, I was in the middle of something else and we never got to that walk.  Your thoughts have made me realize that we should have grabbed the leash and taken off.  The old dog really needs his walks to keep him limber (the poodle, not ME!!).   Anyway, now that we are seeing signs of warmer weather and longer days, it certainly makes it easier. Good luck to all and get out there and get moving! Dale P

Response:

Of course, it’s always nice to have an ocean on one side and mountains on the other.  Fishing in and around Cincinnati usually involves a float and housr of sheer boredom.  I haven’t seen a snowmobile in 20 years.  And the last time I tried windsurfing on the Ohio River, I almost got hit by a barge. — Biopsy 11/01/2000 G7 (3+4), T2c RRP 12/15/2000 G7 (3+4), T3cN0M0 Neg margins PSA  .1  .1  .1  .27  .37  .75 PSA  .34 .22 .15 .21 .32 Lupron 07/03 (1 mo) 8/03 (4 mo), 12/03, 4/04, 09/04, 01/05, 5/05, 10/05, 2/06 PSA  .07 .05 .06 .09 .08 .132 Non Illegitimi Carborundum

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – After working and the commute, you are probably tired and don’t get the activity you could otherwise. THAT’S why finding a vigorous activity we LOVE is so important. The only way work ever interfered with my play time was keeping me away from it. I was literally NEVER too tired to play, simply because play was the most important activity in my life. Example: rush home from work near dark, grab some food, hook my snowmobile trailer to my 4×4, head up the mountain,  ride the night away standing up moto-cross style, rush home, grab a quick breakfast and change clothes and go back to the office … ’cause it was Thursday morning. We went every winter Wed night, and more commonly got back in time for a couple hours of sleep, but not always. Or drive 100 miles from work Fri afternoon, cast for bass all night, get back just in time to put in a 12-hour Saturday at the office. Ditto many other sports, jobs, and locations, right up to the present. I repeat: it’s motivation (read: obsession), not time. Even when I am doing nothing more than working out at home, some of my most vigorous workouts began with forcing myself to put in 10 minutes … by which time the activity had revved me up to the degree I kept going like a banshee with its hair on fire for the next two hours. After all, research has shown that a brief, brisk walk beats a nap or a candy bar for getting and keeping us awake and alert. working a desk job and commuting can tend to lead to poorer eating habits.  You know, you grab something on the run here and there. Allow me to modify that statement: working a desk job and commuting can PROVIDE AN EXCUSE FOR poorer eating habits. I began eating "right" (however one defines it) years before I retired, and work almost never got in the way of it. I got my ass out of bed in time for a good breakfast (what most people would label "supper"); brown-bagged a big, tasty, healthy lunch (I agree one can’t go out for lunch and eat healthy easily); and ate supper at home. Simple! As for all the junk food people bring to the office, also simple: I just don’t eat it. Problem solved. And the  brown-bagged lunch got me through with lunch quickly and thus out the door earlier in the afternoon; I got in up to 5-6 hours of daylight playtime after work in midsummer. Peter Pan syndrome? HELL, yes … and it’s going to keep me young until I die. It’ll keep me alive LONGER, too, if I can just do an end run around my cancer statistics. If no one finds these lectures motivational, I’ll quit. But if just one or two are encouraged and motivated by them, the rest of you will just have to hit DELETE. I.P.

Response:

After working and the commute, you are probably tired and don’t get the activity you could otherwise.  

THAT’S why finding a vigorous activity we LOVE is so important. The only way work ever interfered with my play time was keeping me away from it. I was literally NEVER too tired to play, simply because play was the most important activity in my life. Example: rush home from work near dark, grab some food, hook my snowmobile trailer to my 4×4, head up the mountain,  ride the night away standing up moto-cross style, rush home, grab a quick breakfast and change clothes and go back to the office … ’cause it was Thursday morning. We went every winter Wed night, and more commonly got back in time for a couple hours of sleep, but not always. Or drive 100 miles from work Fri afternoon, cast for bass all night, get back just in time to put in a 12-hour Saturday at the office. Ditto many other sports, jobs, and locations, right up to the present. I repeat: it’s motivation (read: obsession), not time. Even when I am doing nothing more than working out at home, some of my most vigorous workouts began with forcing myself to put in 10 minutes … by which time the activity had revved me up to the degree I kept going like a banshee with its hair on fire for the next two hours. After all, research has shown that a brief, brisk walk beats a nap or a candy bar for getting and keeping us awake and alert. working a desk job and commuting can tend to lead to poorer eating habits.  You know, you grab something on the run here and there.  

Allow me to modify that statement: working a desk job and commuting can PROVIDE AN EXCUSE FOR poorer eating habits. I began eating "right" (however one defines it) years before I retired, and work almost never got in the way of it. I got my ass out of bed in time for a good breakfast (what most people would label "supper"); brown-bagged a big, tasty, healthy lunch (I agree one can’t go out for lunch and eat healthy easily); and ate supper at home. Simple! As for all the junk food people bring to the office, also simple: I just don’t eat it. Problem solved. And the  brown-bagged lunch got me through with lunch quickly and thus out the door earlier in the afternoon; I got in up to 5-6 hours of daylight playtime after work in midsummer. Peter Pan syndrome? HELL, yes … and it’s going to keep me young until I die. It’ll keep me alive LONGER, too, if I can just do an end run around my cancer statistics. If no one finds these lectures motivational, I’ll quit. But if just one or two are encouraged and motivated by them, the rest of you will just have to hit DELETE. I.P.

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Thanks Dale, I appreciate your input.  I have wondered about the thyroid thing before but no, it has never been checked. I will see if I can get that done in the near future. In the winter I do walk a treadmill 3-5 nights a week for 30 minutes each time, fast enough to work up a sweat and then a cool down at the end. I hold down a desk five days a week, maybe walking a maximum of  1/2-1 miles during each day at a normal (slow) pace in the factory, but usually have a moderately active weekend most weeks in the winter with cutting firewood, maintaining a 1/2 mile driveway, snowplowing, and walks in the woods. In the summer there is not enough time to do all the things that need to get done. You are right about the Lupron having both mental and physical effects upon the desire and ability to exercise. Thinking about it, these past 8 or so pounds have appeared while I excused myself from what appeared to be useless time on the treadmill and useless time spent carefully counting calories. I have just gone on Provigil to help a fatigue and sleep problem and maybe that will help get some of the get up and go back. How long have you been on Lupron? You say "cycles" so I assume you are doing intermittent therapy but what length on and off and for how long now and so on? The first year I was on it I put on 18-20 pounds. The next year plus I was off and did notice a big increase in energy. The past 1 1/2 years back on has produced considerably more fatigue than the first time. Thanks for your advise, I’ll ask to get the thyroid checked  on my next visit.

I did a long stint on Lupron/Casodex from early 1999 through 2000.  I have been off of it since then until September 2005, when I restarted the ADT.  I think that the leaving of the work force may really help you with weight problems.  After working and the commute, you are probably tired and don’t get the activity you could otherwise.  Also, working a desk job and commuting can tend to lead to poorer eating habits.  You know, you grab something on the run here and there. It can add up on you before you know it.  Good luck in retirement, and keep moving and trying.  Keep us posted. Dale P

Response:

The smiley should be a dead giveaway.

Didja ever think, say 10 years ago, that so much could ride on a colon and closed parenthesis?

Response:

The smiley should be a dead giveaway. Didja ever think, say 10 years ago, that so much could ride on a colon and closed parenthesis?

i don’t know about the parenthesis, but a couple of us have a ton riding on our colons. ::::::) I.P.

Response:

I.P., you have lots of good input here, much of it appropriate for my situation, some not.  I do have a game plan, most of which has been reinforced with your post and others. Maybe there will be something positive to report back with down the road. Thanks for the input. (And I’ve seen enough of your humor here to make it awful hard for me to buy into you or P.P. Freely being insulted, but I will apologize if you can convince me otherwise)

The smiley should be a dead giveaway. I.P.

Response:

I find it interesting how two people with such disparit initial PSAs (and margins, I guess) can be brought to just about even by a good doctor and treatment plan. — Biopsy 11/01/2000 G7 (3+4), T2c RRP 12/15/2000 G7 (3+4), T3cN0M0 Neg margins PSA  .1  .1  .1  .27  .37  .75 PSA  .34 .22 .15 .21 .32 Lupron 07/03 (1 mo) 8/03 (4 mo), 12/03, 4/04, 09/04, 01/05, 5/05, 10/05, 2/06 PSA  .07 .05 .06 .09 .08 .132 Non Illegitimi Carborundum

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Steve, I’ve seen your posts for a long time but never before noticed a number parallels in our "situations"."  My initial psa was higher (55) and at a later age,  55. Our surgeries were a few days apart, my margins positive but with the same Gleason and N0M0 as well.  I went right to EBRT after healing due to cancer seen on the bladder surface, and Lupron for a year. After an off cycle I have been back on Lupron for the past 1 3/4 years now and my current string of psa’s are almost identical to yours. Not really the best string of events for either of us, but they say that considering where I started, I have been real fortunate to have held it off so far. I don’t know how many time I have been told that. The next psa is three months off, so we wait. And wait. In the meantime we’ll work on the fitness/weight thing and enjoy what we can. If the next reading is still on its way up, at any rate, it’s time to start a new battle. I’ll be watching for your posts, and wishing you the best of luck in your own battle. I gained almost 30 since going on Lupron 2