I repeat my opening sentence from two years ago: The drugs are working and I’ve never felt better. They have been working for the past two years, as confirmed during the quarterly examination I had yesterday. My PSA has been “unmeasurable” (less than 0.02%) throughout the two years indicating, I believe, that the prostate cancer is being held in remission and is not continuing to metastasize into my bones and elsewhere.
Also good news is that I have learned to live with the side effects of the drugs: hot flashes and increasing fatigue. The hot flashes come a few times each day, last for about two minutes and are easy to tolerate, particularly if I can get under one of the ceiling fans in our cottage. The fatigue may be caused as much by aging as by the drugs, and it does hamper the youthful life style I would prefer to be able to maintain. I need a daily nap, which takes an hour out of each day. And I’m sure to fall fast asleep watching TV in the evening unless the program is particularly captivating. Less acceptable is my increasing inability to be on my feet for over one or two hours without running out of energy and needing to rest. But hey, I’m 88, and need to acclimate to the realities of being a senior.
It’s getting easier to acclimate to life as a senior because my life is so good. Kate and I love to entertain our many close friends and local neighbors, and are both very active here at Friends House. I am pursuing two major projects that will provide challenges for all the days I have left, and Kate is deep into enjoying the many opportunities she has here to express her love of gardening. Plus, we are both also involved in the community.
While we spent two and a half weeks in Hawaii earlier this year celebrating Kate’s 80th. birthday, we’re cutting way back on travel; planning, packing, schlepping through airports, all to deadlines, is becoming just too much for our aging bodies and minds. We’re thinking of a couple more trips, one last trip to our time share in Mazatlán, Mexico and one to Glacier National Park, but that most likely will be it. We’re looking forward to our annual week with a house full of old friends in Rehoboth Beach, DE next month, but this will probably be the last year for that joy also; our old friends are getting older, as are we, and it’s getting harder for Kate to pull it all together. So we anticipate retreating into the glorious memories of our many previous trips and continuing to maintain a full and joyous life here at Friends House for as long we can. I’m working hard to assist the drugs in keeping the cancer in remission and my body and mind in good shape so who knows, the remission may continue for years.