PSA... wonderful

These bulletins may well lapse into silence now. I have a regular blood test; what is known as a super-senstive psa. These are scheduled at six monthly intervals and are then followed up with a telephone conversation with the Urology Dept at the Royal Berkshire Hospital.

A reading of anything less that 0.03 is good news. The latest reading was 0.01, which according to the Urology Dept is 'wonderful'. So they will continue the six monthly blood tests and unless there is something very different to report this will be the last bulletin.

...and a final opportunity to say thank you to so many who have prayed so faithfully over the last couple of years. I am more grateful than I can express and only ask you for prayer that Wesley's great birthday hymn will find its fulfilment in this 'remnant of days'.

In a rapture of joy
My life I employ,
The God of my life to proclaim:
'Tis worth living for this,
To administer bliss
And salvation in Jesus's name.

My remnant of days
I spend in His praise
Who died the whole world to redeem;
Be they many, or few,
My days are His due,
And they all are devoted to Him.

The Best

I visited the Cardiology Dept this morning at the Royal Berkshire Hospital so they could check up on the ongoing progress of the 'stent'. The transformation is really quite amazing and I enjoyed telling the surgeon the differences it had made. I walked, with two grandsons, around a 2 mile lake last Saturday! Remarkable when you consider that I could not walk 100 yards without acute discomfort and had got to the stage where I needed to sit down after using my battery operated toothbrush!

I thought you might like to hear a some of his comments;

"It is the best one I have ever done. It is a marked success."

"It is the best one my colleague has ever seen."

"It will become one of our slides for future teaching purposes."

Of course, behind the surgeon's hand was another and I am genuinely grateful to both, and to you for your continued prayer.

Full steam ahead?

I promised to keep folks in the loop as regards by 'capella stent' procedure. It went very well and the procedure team were very excited at the instant improvement of circulation. I am still on a cocktail of drugs but am feeling stronger by the day. The last couple of days I have done my morning mile-walk with the dog whereas before I couldn't manage 100 yards.

A couple of Biblebase Second Thoughts blogs will tell you how I am feeling.

the red river of life
transformed... in a heart beat

thank you all again for love and prayer.

a Capella Stent?

For someone who had just the vaguest notions of human biology the last couple of years have been quite a steep learning curve. This is not a reference to unaccompanied singing! The angiogram went well and established that fact that I have some bifurcation vascular damage and that I am to return to the Cardiology Unit on 15th July for treatment. The treatment is likely to be a 'Capella Stent'. I am going to leave it to the interested, and non-squeamish to 'google' these terms if you want more details.

My doctor son reckons that it is really good that this has been established and treatment is now in hand! I am sure he is right!

I am now on quite a cocktail of medication which is designed to keep things in order until the treatment. Some of these are having an impact on the energy levels again but otherwise I feel pretty good.

Thank you again for all your love and prayer. I will try to keep you in the loop.

General update and a ps

It occurred to me that I haven't updated this for quite some time. No news IS good news... generally.

A couple of months ago I had one of my six-monthly PSA tests in which the PSA levels were 'undetectable' which means there is no sign of the prostate cancer. How easy it is to take things for granted! I am grateful to the Lord and to my many friends who pray regularly for me and my family. Some I don't even know by name and then 'out of the blue' comes a note or a comment which says 'you don't know me, but we have been praying...' It is very humbling to be part of the family of God! So on the prostate cancer front things are looking good and the medics are very pleased with things as they are.

My energy levels are still not back to anything like what they were but are still improving. I am back to my normal loads in preaching in the UK but have not committed to any overseas visits at present. In May/June I have been preaching away from home almost every other week, shared in a 5 day residential conference in Devon and conducted a series of 10 studies on an Introduction to the Bible at a nearby mini-bible school. The surgery also left me with some mild incontinence issues but they are manageable and I am in good spirits. I have taken to 'sitting on a stool' when preaching and folks are accommodating to that pretty well.

and then the ps... A couple of months ago I began to experience odd and erratic pains in my arms and wrists when walking the dog and these increased until I could really only walk a hundred yards or so without extreme discomfort. There was no breathlessness although the pains subsided after rest. My GP decided to examine two suspects; a trapped nerve in the spinal column and the possibility of angina. I have had Xray examinations which confirmed that I have a fusion of a couple of disks in my spine which could certainly be the cause... it seemed we had our chief suspect... but then I had some heart tests yesterday, ECG and treadmill stress tests, which showed 'positive' so angina in back among the suspects too. I am scheduled for an 'urgent' angiogram on 24th July. In the meantime I am now on a daily beta-blocker in addition to my other medications.

I have always been blessed with a robust health and vigorous energy level so the last couple of years have been 'different' to say the least. What is not different is the particular loving care of a 'Father' who knows what things we have need of and has who has personally supervised each step of this journey. Our times are still and absolutely 'in his hands'.

I will try to keep you posted as the next chapter unfolds! Much love to you all and thank you all again for all your love and prayer.

No news is good news...

From time to time in the last six months folks have 'complained' that these blogs have not been updated. My apologies but really there was just nothing to say.

When my intensive radio therapy came to an end the medics did a PSA test. In that I don't have the P(rostate) part of this the test ought to reveal a negligible PSA. This was also to provide a bench mark point for future PSA tests. It was hardly measurable. For the future this is how we monitor my condition.

I have just received the results of my 6 monthly PSA check and the results are that my PSA levels are 'undetectable', either zero or under the 'radar' of the the PSA test. This is the best possible 'test result'. It implies that there is no trace of my prostate cancer. While I am grateful to all the medical care that I have received, I am also conscious that I have not just been in the hands of the medics. Thank you so much for all your prayer and love.

As regards 'after effects', there are some. My energy levels are very much better although when I get tired I do get very tired! I take a nap most afternoons and I am doing well on this. I am back to pretty much my old schedules for preaching and have some extra tasks coming online soon. It has also left me with a measure of incontinence. This is mild and easily manageable but does mean that longer journeys take a little more organisation and I am not planning any flights for the time being.

I am feeling well and looking forward to lots of things I want to do. I am well advanced with my first book called 'The Better Covenant'. It is in the final stages of proof-reading and will hopefully be available on Amazon and with ebook and Kindle versions. Watch this space!

Again, my love to you all and my continual thanks for standing with us during these last 12 months. Surely our times are in His hands.

Loosing the moorings

A few folk have commented recently that there have been no updates since September so let's see if we can improve on that.

Really there is nothing to report except the steady restoring of stamina. I am discovering that currently I cannot do 'morning, noon and night'; any two but not all three. If I do all three the next day leaves me pretty well wiped out.

Last weekend I travelled to Liverpool to be with one of the churches there for the whole of the Sunday. I have been preaching occasionally at home here in Reading but the combination of travelling to a location, preaching in the morning, talking all afternoon, preaching in the evening and travelling back the same day is too much to contemplate just now. Time was when I could have taken it in my stride but currently I am having to measure my energies a little more carefully.

I took the train to Liverpool on Saturday afternoon, preached at the morning meeting, chatted throughout lunch, TOOK AN AFTERNOON NAP, and then preached again in the evening. I left the train journey home until Monday. It all went very well. It was a delight to be with the saints and to share the word of God and renew many old friendships. The danger is, of course, that the adrenalin starts circulating and you forget that you are going to have to pay for it a little later on. The journey home was a bit messy with points closures and more changes of train than expected but it all went well.

On Tuesday I took a quiet day off and slept a couple of times! All in all it went well and I am encouraged. I have a diary of appointments building up now and I want to keep a eye of how it all works out.

I am still doing the 'Speakers' Corner' sessions in the fellowship here and have returned to editing my book. I have now sent the first few chapters and synopses of the others to a prospective publisher; I await their comments! We now have a busy weekend scheduled with a family wedding in Norfolk so life is slowly returning to normal! Thank you all again for all your prayer and good wishes. I have a monitoring appointment in a couple of months and I will do a post when that is done. Love to you all.

on course

My apologies to the folk who have been writing for an update. I was waiting for a significant appointment with my radiologist today.

A few days ago I had a blood test and the results were sent to the radiologist prior to this appointment. We are using the PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) count to monitor any cancerous activity associated with the original prostate cancer. The aggressive nature of the cancer means it was important to make sure that no stray cancerous cells from the prostate had missed the surgery or the radio therapy. In that I don't now have a prostate, it ought to be zero or pretty close to it. The PSA was too low to be measured which it just the result we all wanted. So we are on course. When we rest in God's care we are never really 'off course' but this is the medical view of things.

The process now is that I have no more treatment or appointments for the next 6 months and then we have another blood check and what is called a telephone appointment; that means that I will talk over the results of the next blood check with my Urologist or one of his specialist nurses. So... no more doctors/hospital appointments for 6 months; that is a pleasant prospect.

On the practical level my strength is slowly improving and my continence management is also 'on course'. So, many, many thanks for all your love and prayer; it, and the fellowship it speaks of, have been a great encouragement over these last 10 months.

Please pray for wisdom in the choices I need to make for writing and preaching in the coming months. I want this to be 'on course' too. Again, many thanks and much love to you all.

a brief catch-up

I have had one or two enquiries as to my ongoing health so I thought I would drop a line.

Things seem to be going well. I have an appointment with the radiologist later this month. It was to have been this last month but a visit to a brother's funeral on the day of the appointment put it back a month. I shall have a PSA test next week in preparation for the appointment.

Health-wise I think I am well, strength-wise has been something of a revelation. I am still very tired and my 'get up and go' has certainly 'got up and gone!' I read an interesting prayer the other day...

Do not cast me off in the time of old age; Do not forsake me when my strength fails. Psa 71:9 NKJV

I don't feel at all 'cast off' but I understand the sentiment. The psalmist is sustained my his remembrance of God's faithfulness from childhood, through youth, to 'hoar hairs', as the old version puts it. We do rejoice in our faithful God. I will post again when I have had my appointment.

Thank you for your love and prayer.

Radiotherapy completed.

Well, it has seemed a long time but my six and a half weeks of radiotherapy are completed. Apparently any side effects should peak in about a week's time and then it is just a gentle climb back... I have been able to get quite a bit of reading done waiting for broken machines to be mended. The machines are very sophisticated and high maintenance and I guess I don't want to hear the radiotherapists say 'well it's pointing in roughly the right direction'!

I have a final appointment with the radiologist at the end of August.

I have been very well but am feeling very tired just at present. There is grace for this too. My times are still in His hands.

take it easy

I had never realised just how 'busy' being unwell could be. This morning I started with a visit to the local blood clinic for samples to be taken for further tests. Then a couple of hours later I had my daily visit to the radiotherapy unit at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. Then just time for a brief bite of lunch and an emergency visit to the dentist for some attention...

At the radiotherapy centre they say "you will be tired, take it easy..."

Tell me about it! ;-)

half way through

Just a quick update. I am mid-way through my radiotherapy, 16/32 as they say here. All seems to be going well. I have not experienced much loss in energy and natural functions are fairly steady.

The treatment only takes about 5 minutes and most of that is getting me just in the right position. The radiotherapist constantly call out numbers to each other to ensure that I am just in the right spot for the treatment. One of the therapists today said, "you are really good at this. You are relaxed so it is easy to get you into position"

I didn't tell her my secret. I have had a mother, wife, four daughters and two granddaughters... I am used to being manipulated by the gentler sex!

2 down, 30 to go

I have begun my course of radiotherapy. I have 32 sessions scheduled and have had the first two. The sessions themselves are painless, except for the waiting, but there are likely to be some side-effects in tiredness and some body functions. All is normal at present and I work on the principle that 'grace' is given 'in time of need', so I will not try to carry tomorrow's burdens with today's grace! Love to you all.

Three Tattoos

It has been a while and one or two folk have requested an update so here we go.

Progress has been steady and energy levels rising. This is all as expected. When folk see me they always comment as to how well I look. In fact I have retained my usual colouring throughout; I always look well, unless I am very tired. I sometimes think when the time comes for me to lie in my box someone is bound to say 'doesn't he look well'!

Yesterday I had a CT scan and three tattoos. These are tiny location points (no eagles or tigers!!) to help the alignment of the radiotherapy that is now scheduled to begin on 7th June. The radiotherapy course of treatment will be 5 days per week for 6 and a half weeks.

As the treatment progresses there is likelihood of various alterations in bodily functions; I won't embarrass you with the details but there is likely to be further dip in energy levels. We continue to look to the Lord for his hand on the whole process. Thank you to all who care and pray; we are in your debt but my Patron will surely repay it! Love to you all.

a bit of a wipe out

I hadn't thought to be blogging here for a little while but I am just ending a week in bed with a heavy cold and mild bronchitis. Bronchitis can sometimes lead to pneumonia so my doctor has me on antibiotics and today is my first proper day 'up' since last Sunday.

We had a happy but busy weekend which included going to hear my 16 year old grand-daughter preaching at her church in nearby Bracknell. I was very blessed and impressed but very weary by the time we got home. I think my cold was already 'on the way' and my general weakness and the tiredness lowered my resistance even more... hence... a bit of a wipe out!

I am feeling much brighter today but am going to have to be more circumspect in my use of energy for a while I think. As ever the saints have rallied around providing lifts for my wife and daughter. We are blessed to be part of the family of God.

I have my first meeting with the radio-therapist this coming Wednesday. I think this is to talk through the procedures and formally pass me into the care of the radio-therapists. I am not expecting the treatment to begin for a few months but I should know a bit more on Wednesday. Again thank you for all your prayer.

Back from the appointment with my surgeon

The visit went well and I have a four page print out of Pathology and Radiology Reports which is a mass of terms I don't understand. It must be like this sometimes for my hearers when I am preaching! ;-)

I will send copies to some of my doctor friends together with this blog and if I have misunderstood some of the implications I will correct that later.

The radical surgery went well and my 20 inch scar is healing well. The surgeon removed the entire prostate and stripped some of the lymph nodes. It seems to me that the tumour was confined to the prostate (pT2 for those who understand these things). There was no vascular invasion and the lymph nodes did not contain tumour.

A super sensitive PSA gave a figure of 0.021 ug/L which is good. So they were very satisfied with that figure.

The cancer was confirmed as extremely aggressive which is why they have more plans for me. As far as I understand it the cancer reached to within 0.1mm of the margin of the prostate and although there is no sign of cancer outside the prostate this comes so close to the margins that they want to be sure that nothing is left. So my surgeon is recommending a course of radio-therapy to clean up anything that might be in that area! He refers to it as multi-modular treatment or 'belt and braces'. The radio-therapist will make the final recommendation but he general agrees with the surgeon.

The radio-therapist, whom I have not seen yet, thinks it will be best to leave 3-6 months while the continence issues are settling and will then probably do a 6.5 week course of radiotherapy for 5 days out of each 7. That could be anywhere from July to October.

The surgeon has recommended fresh liver and black pudding to beef up my blood counts which I am looking forward to although it seems I can't get them on prescription. (my surgeon originates in Bury Lancashire, which just happens to be the place that black-pudding originates. There may be a connection between those two facts!;-))

We went for a long walk along the Thames at Henley in the afternoon and though I was very tired when we got back that was a very pleasant outing.

So unless I have to correct any of the above there is likely to be little to report for the next few weeks. Again my thanks for everyone's love and prayer.

6 weeks post op appointment due Tuesday 6th April.

I went to our local GP’s blood clinic yesterday. They needed a sample of my blood to do a super-sensitive PSA test. ( a test useful after radical prostatectomy to detect early recurrences. ) PSAs stay in the blood for about 6 weeks so the idea is that by this time PSA from my prostate should have all passed through my system. If there are PSA’s is may indicate that further treatment is necessary. The data from this blood test will be in the hands of my surgeon for my 6 weeks post op appointment on Tuesday 6th. He will also have the results of the prostate and lymph nodes histology from the op itself. These two, the current PSA values and the histology from the op will the data he uses to advise on any further treatment. I will let you know the results when I have them. Thank you all again for all your prayers and good wishes and cards and emails. I am grateful for and very humbled by all your love.

now you see it, now you don't

going...


going...


gone!!

by grace through faith: part 1

finally got around to the first part of my thoughts on this topic. I have decided it sits better on Biblebase Second Thoughts so you can read it here

the body of this humilation

This is one of Paul's descriptions of the human body. It is a 'humbled' artefact that for the Christian will one day be transformed into the likeness of Christ's own resurrection body.

This is a 'humbling' time in that I have so much I want to do but know I don't have the energy to do it. My 'get up and go' has got up and gone! But this too is another opportunity to find God's grace in new ways. I have always been blessed with an energetic disposition and don't believe I was ever 'bored' in my whole life. But the rhythms have changed and just a minimum of effort now needs an hour's recuperation. Is God sufficient for this season? Is his grace sufficient or did he not take this possibility into account when he promised to make 'all grace abound'?

It is a humbling time too in that long 'taken for granted' bodily functions now have to be carefully nursed. I understand that most men find this period the most trying of all.

I recall Christ's words to Peter that when he was young he dressed himself and went where he wanted to go but that a time would come when others would dress him and take him where he did not want to go. It was a prediction of Peter's death but the gospel writer adds this simple comment "he said this to show Peter by what death he would glorify God. Can these 'little deaths' to pride and self-sufficiency glorify God too? Yes they may... by his grace.