Healing
In addition to having the hormone shots, the surgeon suggested monthly infusions of Zometa which he said would protect my bones. I found these infusions really a challenge. Restlessness for several days afterward, muscle aches and pains especially in my legs, flu like symptoms. The discomfort in my leg muscles never really stopped, even after stopping the infusions at the same time as the hormone treatment was stopped. Nobody can give me any ideas or help on this one. The Zometa website only allows patients from the US to submit questions re the treatment.
In addition to having the hormone shots and Zometa infusions, I put myself on a strict no red meat, no dairy products, no alcohol, no eggs and no sugar eating plan. I eat lots of fish, every kind I can get my hands on. Organically grown chicken and turkey breasts round out the meat. Lots of fresh vegetables and fruit. And I drink only green tea and water.
My GP is also a homeopathic doctor and he had my blood monitored every 6 weeks (and this continues) to check the psa levels, and also to check on the liver and kidney functions. The hormone shots and Zometa have to be processed by the kidneys and liver and they put quite a strain on these organs. However, with herbal prescriptions both kidney and liver functions have remained normal. Kidney energy was low and it has taken until now to find the right herbal combinations (Chinese medicine did the trick) to get that energy back up.
I also did a major detoxification with another doctor to remove any background influences which could play a negative role in my recovery.
Then the books of Gregg Braden were recommended to me and I devoured all of them: "The Spontaneous Healing of Belief" and "The Divine Matrix" especially turned my thinking 180 degrees. I recommend both books highly. As I kept saying to both the surgeon and the GP, one of my biggest battles was my own mind and these books helped me along the path toward a deep and real mental recovery from years of stress, anxiety and difficulties.
The work of Bruce Lipton (on cell biology - see him on YouTube) also shed much light on my situation. Both Lipton and Braden are inspired men who walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
In May my wife and I were privileged to attend an evening lecture by Gregg Braden and then to spend an entire day with him as he stood on stage for over 6 hours and made a presentation which inspired, enlightened and lifted the spirit.
Without any treatment since February of this year we have kept a close watch on the psa levels. Throughout the summer they rose slightly from 0.13 to 0.38 and then in a six week period end of August to the beginning of October the psa spiked some 525% from 0.38 to 2. This, along with a numbness which I began to feel in my left leg toward the end of August, was alarming. The surgeon ordered an MRI but all that could be seen was the arthritus in my spine.
When I saw the urologist at the National Cancer hospital in Amserdam some weeks later (prostate cancer in Holland is cared for by a urologist, not an oncologist) he was very alarmed and ordered another bone scan. The scan did show some "hot spots" but when he looked at the MRI pictures he had to agree that there was no cancer in the spine at all and that the numbness is being caused by a disc in the lumbar spine, I think it is at L4 (or L5), which is slightly out of place and is pressing on a nerve.
To my great relief, the psa has remained at 2 for the next 4 weeks. Why it spiked, no one knows. But if testosterone is back to normal and the psa is at 2 and holding, then all we're dealing with is microscopic cells. Another psa is scheduled for Wednesday this week. I should have the results on Friday and will post them on here as and when I do get them.
To deal with the numbness in my leg I've had cranial/sacral treatment (a very gentle and deep therapy), two sessions with a spine specialist who is skilled at manipulating the spine back into position (but he didn't releave the numbness) and just 3 weeks ago I began to take private Pilates lessons. The cranial/sacral treatments have relieved unnecessary tension from the muscles around my pelvis. The spine correction has corrected some discs which were out of line at the top of the lumbar spine. So now all I have to deal with is the one at the bottom.
One Pilates session a week is all I can take because my muscles are quite flabby from loss of testosterone (but the testosterone is now back to normal levels so I'm hoping for a real return of strength in the next months.) but I feel that doing this kind of exercise (which is monitored throughout the hour session by the trainer and which is based on stretching and very simple movements) is giving me my body back. I have a very high kinesthetic sense, developed through my training as a teacher of the Alexander Technique, and it was particularly distressing during the hormone treatment not to be able to feel my body or really direct it, as I had been used to doing. This, I am happy to say, is now becoming a thing of the past.
My next goal is to get my weight down. I have always weighed around 155 pounds which is about right for my height and bone structure. But with the hormone treatment, and despite watching what I eat, I now weigh in at about 189 and all of it is around my middle. Ugh. My face has become more podgy as well (the photo here was taken at th start of the hormone treatment). Fatloss4idiots helped me get weight off a few years ago very successfully but now my diet is more restricted, menu planning along the lines of fatloss4iditos is more of a challenge.
I have also trained as a Reiki healer since my treatment began and have done both grade 1 and 2. With grade 2 you can send healing to parts of yourself which you can't reach with your hands. I've found Reiki extremely helpful. I also have learned to meditate using the excellent cd available from Centrepoint called "holosync audio technology." (http://www.centerpointe.com/) It isn't cheap, but what price life?
So what's my advice?
Stay on top of the situation. Demand tests and information before entering into any treatment. Take all they can offer you. 100%. If you have access to alternative medicine, do 100% of that as well. It is extremely important that you find medical practitioners who will look at all of you, not just the part that has been ill. Healing is something quite different than curing. We need all of our resources in order to heal. By all means have every treatment which will help. But there is something outside of the treatment which is equally important - and that is the healthy you. We can easilly begin to focus on just the ill part. Of course the ill part needs expert attention. But never forget there is also a large part of you which IS healthy.
Based on my belief in that healthy part of myself, in May 2010 I married a woman who has been my best friend and admired colleague for 25 years. We've bought a beautiful house together in a Dutch city called Nijmegen which is on the Dutch/German border. Last month we opened our International Center for Holistic Learning and have begun to train 6 students to become teachers of the Alexander Technique - a three year course, 1600 hours in total, involving us working with the students 4 days a week for 4 hours a day. With these committments I look forward to my future with confidence - and that plays a major role, I think, in my well being. Time will tell if I am right!
In addition to having the hormone shots and Zometa infusions, I put myself on a strict no red meat, no dairy products, no alcohol, no eggs and no sugar eating plan. I eat lots of fish, every kind I can get my hands on. Organically grown chicken and turkey breasts round out the meat. Lots of fresh vegetables and fruit. And I drink only green tea and water.
My GP is also a homeopathic doctor and he had my blood monitored every 6 weeks (and this continues) to check the psa levels, and also to check on the liver and kidney functions. The hormone shots and Zometa have to be processed by the kidneys and liver and they put quite a strain on these organs. However, with herbal prescriptions both kidney and liver functions have remained normal. Kidney energy was low and it has taken until now to find the right herbal combinations (Chinese medicine did the trick) to get that energy back up.
I also did a major detoxification with another doctor to remove any background influences which could play a negative role in my recovery.
Then the books of Gregg Braden were recommended to me and I devoured all of them: "The Spontaneous Healing of Belief" and "The Divine Matrix" especially turned my thinking 180 degrees. I recommend both books highly. As I kept saying to both the surgeon and the GP, one of my biggest battles was my own mind and these books helped me along the path toward a deep and real mental recovery from years of stress, anxiety and difficulties.
The work of Bruce Lipton (on cell biology - see him on YouTube) also shed much light on my situation. Both Lipton and Braden are inspired men who walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
In May my wife and I were privileged to attend an evening lecture by Gregg Braden and then to spend an entire day with him as he stood on stage for over 6 hours and made a presentation which inspired, enlightened and lifted the spirit.
Without any treatment since February of this year we have kept a close watch on the psa levels. Throughout the summer they rose slightly from 0.13 to 0.38 and then in a six week period end of August to the beginning of October the psa spiked some 525% from 0.38 to 2. This, along with a numbness which I began to feel in my left leg toward the end of August, was alarming. The surgeon ordered an MRI but all that could be seen was the arthritus in my spine.
When I saw the urologist at the National Cancer hospital in Amserdam some weeks later (prostate cancer in Holland is cared for by a urologist, not an oncologist) he was very alarmed and ordered another bone scan. The scan did show some "hot spots" but when he looked at the MRI pictures he had to agree that there was no cancer in the spine at all and that the numbness is being caused by a disc in the lumbar spine, I think it is at L4 (or L5), which is slightly out of place and is pressing on a nerve.
To my great relief, the psa has remained at 2 for the next 4 weeks. Why it spiked, no one knows. But if testosterone is back to normal and the psa is at 2 and holding, then all we're dealing with is microscopic cells. Another psa is scheduled for Wednesday this week. I should have the results on Friday and will post them on here as and when I do get them.
To deal with the numbness in my leg I've had cranial/sacral treatment (a very gentle and deep therapy), two sessions with a spine specialist who is skilled at manipulating the spine back into position (but he didn't releave the numbness) and just 3 weeks ago I began to take private Pilates lessons. The cranial/sacral treatments have relieved unnecessary tension from the muscles around my pelvis. The spine correction has corrected some discs which were out of line at the top of the lumbar spine. So now all I have to deal with is the one at the bottom.
One Pilates session a week is all I can take because my muscles are quite flabby from loss of testosterone (but the testosterone is now back to normal levels so I'm hoping for a real return of strength in the next months.) but I feel that doing this kind of exercise (which is monitored throughout the hour session by the trainer and which is based on stretching and very simple movements) is giving me my body back. I have a very high kinesthetic sense, developed through my training as a teacher of the Alexander Technique, and it was particularly distressing during the hormone treatment not to be able to feel my body or really direct it, as I had been used to doing. This, I am happy to say, is now becoming a thing of the past.
My next goal is to get my weight down. I have always weighed around 155 pounds which is about right for my height and bone structure. But with the hormone treatment, and despite watching what I eat, I now weigh in at about 189 and all of it is around my middle. Ugh. My face has become more podgy as well (the photo here was taken at th start of the hormone treatment). Fatloss4idiots helped me get weight off a few years ago very successfully but now my diet is more restricted, menu planning along the lines of fatloss4iditos is more of a challenge.
I have also trained as a Reiki healer since my treatment began and have done both grade 1 and 2. With grade 2 you can send healing to parts of yourself which you can't reach with your hands. I've found Reiki extremely helpful. I also have learned to meditate using the excellent cd available from Centrepoint called "holosync audio technology." (http://www.centerpointe.com/) It isn't cheap, but what price life?
So what's my advice?
Stay on top of the situation. Demand tests and information before entering into any treatment. Take all they can offer you. 100%. If you have access to alternative medicine, do 100% of that as well. It is extremely important that you find medical practitioners who will look at all of you, not just the part that has been ill. Healing is something quite different than curing. We need all of our resources in order to heal. By all means have every treatment which will help. But there is something outside of the treatment which is equally important - and that is the healthy you. We can easilly begin to focus on just the ill part. Of course the ill part needs expert attention. But never forget there is also a large part of you which IS healthy.
Based on my belief in that healthy part of myself, in May 2010 I married a woman who has been my best friend and admired colleague for 25 years. We've bought a beautiful house together in a Dutch city called Nijmegen which is on the Dutch/German border. Last month we opened our International Center for Holistic Learning and have begun to train 6 students to become teachers of the Alexander Technique - a three year course, 1600 hours in total, involving us working with the students 4 days a week for 4 hours a day. With these committments I look forward to my future with confidence - and that plays a major role, I think, in my well being. Time will tell if I am right!