The folks at NIH called me today to follow up on my visit from last week. They first wanted to make sure that I walked away with a correct understanding of where we go from here and to let me know the results of my blood test that they took while I was there.
When I was first diagnosed, my PSA was 12. "Normal" is considered anything under 4 or, in my case, normal is as low as possible. My oncologist took another test at the 3 month mark back in February at which point it was 3. At that point I didn't want to get too excited because it was a data point of one. Not much to go on really, it could have been a fluke, it could have dipped down and then shoot right back up. Anything could happen, so I took it for what it was, a good indicator, but nothing more.
Today when they called, I expected them to say that it was still 3, or perhaps 2.5 or maybe even 4. There was also the possibility of are more worse case scenario in which it was back at or above the level from my diagnosis. What I didn't expect was the number to be 1.09. Even though it's still only two data points, it is a trend and it's a downward trend. Maybe I am getting control of this thing. Maybe the treatment is, in fact, working. Maybe I will beat down this cancer after all. They cautioned me that it will probably never get to zero, that it will probably go below 1 but not all the way down. I can accept that. As long as it hits a low point and stays there, I can accept that without a problem.
Now if I can just get this pain under control...
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