to everyone at the newsgroup - jim and i had talked for the past couple
of years.  he was more active in the newsgroup at the beginning, then no
more posts.  

i think jim would want the folks to know what happened and that he was
in good spirits even the last week of his life.

this is two emails that he sent.......

~ curtis

------------

My PCa had reached my spine, ribs and hips by the time I was diagnosed.
That was 24 months ago.

It is now all over my body, from the top of my head to my knees. So far
it has not hit any organs and the doctor told me that it probably won't.
It will just continue to wear me down. Outwardly, I appear fine.

Problem is that the cancer is eating from the inside. Unfortunately,
none of the treatments I've been given had any lasting benefit. The
hormone therapy failed after six months. It's been known to work for
years. Taxotere worked fine but failed after 3 treatments. 3 other chemo
treatments, including Provenge did nothing. I'm now on hospice. I don't
know how much longer I have but I'm getting weaker by the day.

My PSA went from 1386 to 3174 in 4 weeks. It was obvious that the cancer
was totally out of control. That is what prompted the move to hospice. I
was in total agreement with the decision. The doctor said that part of
his oath is "to do no harm". He said that continuing chemo would only
cause harm and degrade my quality of life.

All I can do now is enjoy each day I have.

I play with my grandsons as well as I can. They give me much joy.

------

Curtis
We gave it a good fight. The cancer was just too far advanced and
powerful.

We discussed Provenge a while back. It did absolutely nothing. It will
fail even if approved by the FDA. Their delivery mechanism is far too
complex. I had to go to a lab and have my white and plasma cells
extracted. That was an unpleasant process. They used horse size needles
in each arm. It took about 2 hours to do the job. This stuff is then
loaded with the serum and two days later it is infused back into the
patient. If it did some good then it was worth the aggravation but it
did nothing. My PSA went to 4 digits while I was going through the
trial.

I'm going to keep the group informed as this thing progresses. I've
searched the web to find out what to expect at the end. I could find
nothing. I had no idea what to expect. I got what I hope is an accurate
answer from my Oncologist. He is very good and has no reason to lie
about something like that.

I'm sure there are a lot of guys on the same path that I was on who
might get comfort in knowing what is coming. What do you think?

See ya
Jim

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."
http://community.webtv.net/PALMER_ENT/doc

Aaaaah crap!

Thanks dave for letting everyone know and thanks to c palmer for the
updates.  I was interested in his choices and reasoning.

-kh

Thanks, Dave

May he rest in peace.

Thanks for letting us know, Dave.

I think what got to me about his last couple of posts was his comments
about his grandsons.

--charlie