although delayed on appt Monday - treatments continuing.  Meeting people at the cancer clinic and at the hospital and sharing our stories.  The cancer clinic supplied a discount card for the hospital cafeteria.  Food isn’t very good - but it’s cheap
Feeling a little peaked after wednesday’s treatment.  Stomach is upset and lightheadedness.

After being postponed twice - tomotherapy started on Sept 15.  On Sept 16th, the machine was down.  On Sept 17th - back to treatment.  Met with Doctor and the engineer on the machine to express concern with continuity and effectiveness of treatments.  Left meeting feeling reassured.  Treatmenst on 17th, 18th, & 19th.   Machine was down on 18th and I had regular radiation.
The treatment doesn’t last long at all.  They do a scan first, then show that to the doctor in case there are any adjustments that need to be made.  Tomotherapy is more precisely targeted, they try to not radiate good tissue.  The continuous scanning checks for shrinkage and is adjusted accordingly.  The targets are a real concern - not the implanted ones, the ones they drew on three places.  They’re very faint, but i guess they now what they’re doing.
   Room at hospitality house was pretty bad.  No shower - cockroaches in the bathroom.
Not feeling any side effects aside from urination frequency.  Once an hour!  Got a prescription for FLOMAX, dropped it t WalMart only to find it will cost $240 a MONTH!  Called Dr. Kim and the nurses there called the urologist to see if he had samples (he did). 

The Gleason Score

Prostate cancer is the second most deadly form of cancer in males next to lung cancer. It can strike men in their fifties and may not be detected until it’s too late. A Gleason Score was developed to help evaluate the stages of prostate cancer and to determine prognosis and to guide therapy.

A Gleason Score is given to grade prostate cancer. The scale numbers from 1-5. The Gleason Score numbers from 2-10. The lower the score, the better prognosis, the higher score means the cancer is more aggressive and the prognosis is worse. The Gleason Score was named after Donald F. Gleason, M.D. who was a pathologist at the Minneapolis V.A. Hospital. It was developed in the 1960’s to help determine the level of cancerous cells present after a biopsy.

To determine the grade of prostate cancer a urologist will take a biopsy of prostate tissue through the rectum, it will then be prepared for examination by a pathologist. They will give the biopsy a grade.

Grade 1: cells are close together and resemble normal prostate tissue
Grade 2: cells are larger and have more space between them.
Grade 3: cells are darker but have left the glands and are beginning to surround other tissue.
Grade 4: cells have left the glands but are still recognizable; they are surrounding and invading other tissue.
Grade 5: cells are unrecognizable and have sheets of cancerous cells throughout the surrounding tissue.

A Gleason Score is the combination of two patterns, the cell tissue and the cancerous tissue. The grades are added to the score to determine the proper course of treatment which could range from chemotherapy to surgery. Prostate cancer is metastasizing cells, which means in can invade other parts of the body such as the bladder, bones and rectum.
Early detection is always the key and many men over fifty should get a checkup to determine if any cancerous cells have developed.

Yesterday he had the fiduciaries (sp?) implanted in his prostate.  It was not a pleasant procedure.  Be sure to make sure to check that they’ve lubed up the apparatus before they insert it!  It didn’t really take too long.   He was able to have a nice lunch afterwards and drive home.

There was quite a bit of bleeding - both during and afterwards.  Seems to have stopped today.