It’s been quite awhile since my last health update on here, so for those of you who follow our cancer journeys, I thought it was about time for another one. I say journeys because you may remember that, in addition to my cancers, hubby was diagnosed with prostate cancer last summer. Fast forward eight and a half months and as of this week, he no longer has a prostate and as far as we know, he no longer has cancer!

Surgical removal of the prostate, in spite of the fact that it has some negative effects, is thought to be the best choice for long-term survival, but when we saw the urologist in August, he warned us that many specialists consider 70 to be the upper age for performing that surgery. At 73, Richard is otherwise in excellent health and physical condition, so he was referred to a specialist who does robotic prostate surgery, the most advanced treatment option available, with the hope that he would agree to do the procedure. Had he not, there were several other options that we would have had to consider.

On October 31, after the appointment was delayed by a few weeks due to us both having Covid, we finally met with the surgeon. He had clearly reviewed Richard’s case and had absolutely no qualms about performing the surgery on someone in his physical condition. As Dr D said, we could easily look around his waiting room and see men a decade younger than Richard who weren’t in the shape he was in and who would be much higher risk. We were told at that appointment that the wait time for surgery would be five to six months.

Almost five months later, we arrived at the hospital in Edmonton at 5:30 a.m. on Monday and by noon Richard was in the recovery room with no prostate and hopefully no cancer. After one night in hospital, he was released the following day and I suddenly went from patient to caregiver! Total role reversal!

Over the nine and a half years since my first cancer diagnosis, Richard has stood by me and provided excellent care when I’ve needed it. He’s accompanied me to countless specialist appointments and seen me through numerous scans, two major surgeries, 30 radiation treatments, and 14 PRRT treatments. Now it was my turn and I wondered how I would do! Thankfully, he’s been a model patient and things have been going well so far.

The biggest challenge facing us when we got home was the fact that he has a catheter which won’t come out until April 6. The first evening, as we figured out how to change from day bag to night bag (including cleaning the day bag and tubing for the next day’s use), we were both all thumbs. Once we figured everything out though, he’s been able to manage it with minimal assistance from me. A bigger challenge for me might come when our snow finally melts and I’m suddenly in charge of the early spring yard work that Richard usually takes care of! He has very clear instructions not to do any heavy lifting, snow shovelling, or lawn mowing for six weeks. At that point, we’ll also see the surgeon for a follow-up appointment. It’s then that we’ll receive the pathology report and know for sure that he’s cancer free.

And what about my cancer journey? Since early December, I’ve had a CT scan and three different PET scans. Two of those were part of a study. All four scans agreed… no change; no growth or spread. As far as we can tell, my neuroendocrine cancer (NETS) continues to be stable. We’re somewhat puzzled by the fact that a couple of markers in my blood and urine that are specific to NETS have been climbing, but since I’m having absolutely no symptoms, we’ll simply continue to monitor those with more frequent testing. Last week I had my annual check up with the wonderful surgeon who removed both of my other cancers and the good news is that there is no sign of recurrence of either one of those. This is as close as I’ll ever get to a clean bill of health, so I’m in good shape for my present role of caregiver instead of patient!