hi bert - sorry about the problems you are having.  

i will say something, but i don't want anyone to take it as my taking
any position - one way or the other.   this is a known fact on what i'm
going to say.

that is about radiation.   if a person undergoes radiation - any kind of
radiation - there is damage to the body - but the joker in the deck is
that the damage doesn't happen sometimes right away.

let me give examples.   sun radiation - when done to the excess during
the day, doesn't show up until the night and does it go away the next
day - no.  it's takes time for the body to recover from the over
exposure.  and if you over do it again, the same thing happens.

flash burns from welding - here - the excess radiation was in the form
of an arc or light.  the eye could not react fast enough and the damage
is done - period.  when do you know about it?  later, when your eyes
start burning, hence the term flash burn.  

laser burns - for eyes - same as above, only far more damage, because
most of the time the lens of the eye is opened further because lasers
normal operate in a darker environment and therefore more light can pass
through into the eye and the focus of the lens can take a small amount
of light and concentrate it which is about the same as getting hit with
a higher dosage of light.  can go into more detail if needed, but that's
the basics.

radiation damage - you have alpha, beta, and gamma radiation.  alpha,
radiation is short lived radiation and dies out fairly fast.  beta is
short term also.  in fact, if one was involved with a nuclear incident
and there was a banana left out, it would be perfectly safe to peel and
eat it as long as the contaimination never fell off the peeling onto the
meat of the banana.  so, that leaves gamma radiation.

gamma radiation is what x-rays are.  this is what you get when you have
chest x-rays or any other x-ray of the body.  it is low dosage, but as
you know, the x-ray tech still wears those lead shields.  now, how does
this all tie together prostate cancer.  it is all in the method of
delivery, which is why you have 3-d type, EBERT, the internal types,
seeds,  HDT.  just to name a few.  they work off of high exposure for a
short period of time.  killing the cancer and dissipating.   but
remember that sunburn???  

the body has been exposed to radiation and the effects of the damage is
sometimes slow in coming.  there is no exact time table.  

let's look at the wwII on japan.  when they were exposed to radiation.
some of it was so intense, that the human body vaporized and physically
made a shadow on the side of the building of where that person was and
that is now gone.  now, that's high radiation, but that will give you
some idea of just how powerful radiation can be.  and then for the
coming months and years later, people started coming down with radiation
sickness.  the same thing happened in russia when the power plant melted
down.  then it was years later, and people were still showing up with
signs of excessive radiation damage.  it is that last group i wish to
talk about.  these are the ones who are behaving like the ones who get
radiated for treatment.  the only difference - is that the radiation is
aimed at the prostate.  

now, bert, i can't tell you 100% that this is a result of it, but at the
same time, i should tell you that it shouldn't come as a surprise
either.  i do think that the people in charge of the radiation types of
treatments need to sit down with the patient and explain to them
completely - that means spell EVERYTHING out that the patient may
experience.  let's face it.  it's scary when stuff like this starts
happening and you don't have anyone to talk to about it.

i want to reiterate again.  this is not taking a stand one way or the
other about radiation type treatments.  they do work and there is no
clear cut advantage of radiation over another type of treatment, for
example - surgery.  it is up to that person who has the pca to know and
understand what each treatment has store for them.   this way we can
help each other as that person arrives to that particular part of the
recovery.  

here's a good example of what i'm talking about.  let's say a person
goes in for seeds.  ok, the psa drops to it's lowest level and stays
there.  then about 18 months later, it spikes and starts to climb.  does
that mean it's coming back.  no - that means it's common for that to
happen if you had seeds done.  but look at the time frame.  look at how
long it took for this to take place.  it didn't happen right away.  it
is just like the examples i gave above only this one has a normal range
of predictability.

i hope this all makes sense as i explained it.  i just wanted to keep
this post simple and easy to understand. there is a lot more i could go
into as far as details, but it really starts into into technical numbers
and jargon.  

~ curtis

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional    
"Many more men die with prostate cancer than of it. Growing old is
invariably fatal. Prostate cancer is only sometimes so."