Radiation, ADT and the Road Ahead
I once believed surgery might be the chapter where cancer treatment ended.
My pathology told us otherwise.
With aggressive features—including disease outside the prostate, seminal vesicle involvement, positive margins and lymph-node involvement—the conversation shifted toward additional treatment.
Radiation.
Hormone therapy.
Systemic treatment.
Words like ADT, Eligard, abiraterone and prednisone became part of our vocabulary.
Once again, Sue and I found ourselves adjusting to a new reality.
There is something emotionally difficult about finishing one major treatment only to discover that another treatment is waiting.
You want the surgery to have been enough.
You want someone to say:
“We got it.”
Instead, sometimes cancer requires layers of treatment designed to reduce the chances that microscopic disease gets another opportunity.
And treatment isn’t only about what happens in a radiation room or what medication you take.
There is another side to it.
Energy.
Strength.
Mood.
Hormones.
Sexual health.
Bone health.
Relationships.
Identity.
The mental burden of wondering whether treatment is working.
Those things matter too.
I’ve learned that being treated for cancer and living with cancer treatment are related, but they aren’t exactly the same thing.
One happens in the clinic.
The other happens at home.
It happens when you wake up.
When you look in the mirror.
When you make plans.
When you try to explain how you’re feeling to someone who loves you.
When you wonder what life will look like two years from now.
There are still uncertainties ahead for us.
But I’ve stopped believing I need to solve the entire future today.
Sometimes the next right thing is simply the next appointment.
The next treatment.
The next conversation.
The next question.
The next Mile Marker.
We don’t know exactly where this road leads.
But we’re still on it.
And we’re still moving forward.