On May 7, 2004, I had a seed implant at the Massey Cancer Center in
Richmond, Virginia.  Just a few days ago, I returned from a
backpacking trek on the Inca Trail in Peru.  And just a day before I
left, I received the results of my first post-implant PSA:  0.4 down
from 4.6 at the time of the implant.  So for now, things are looking
very good indeed, although as you all know, with radiation, it takes a
year or more to reach any degree of certainty as to whether the PCa is
on the run or not.

Being diagnosed with PCa was something of a gift in one sense.  I had
always wanted to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (as well as a do
a number of other things in my life) but had put it off in order to
save a little more money, complete other projects, keep appointments,
etc.  PCa brought me face-to-face with my own mortality, and I
realized that something is going to get me before too awfully long
(I'm 63 years old)--if not PCa, then something else--so I decided
that, from now on, if there's something I want to do and I can afford
to do it, then I'm on my way. And that includes all the things I've
always wanted to say to my wife and kids, good friends, and others but
never got around to it. Thanks to PCa, I think I'm living a more
authentic life these days, focusing on what really counts.  Too bad it
took a life-threatening disease to bring me around to this position,
though.

As many of you have said often in this NG, life is good.

Ron Carter