2016 was a bad year for myself and my family. First Charlotte Elenore Ludwig passed on April 23rd. What a wonderful mother she was. She must have done something right to have 4 great kid’s out of 5. Next on October 12th Ruth’s dad past. Guillermo Montanez made it to a ripe 96 from good living and Jalapeno’s. About a week later I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I get a call from the Dr. in the middle of a workday to tell me this. Not only that it is cancer but that it is a very aggressive and rare form of prostate cancer. The diagnosis just happened to coincide with Marilyn and Jon’s (sister and brother-in-law) first and only visit to Seattle. So what do we do now? Well have a drink of course. Then another and another and so on. Ruth comes home with no idea of what is going on only seeing that their first visit to see us and we are all toasted before she even makes it home from work. She was not happy for good reason. Once she got word it was understandable. Next step was surgery on December 6th. There was a great blessing at this time amongst the panic and fear of what’s next. That was the first time since my sister Dara left home in 1974 that all five siblings were under one roof. We had a great time before I had to go under the knife. This was considered a radical prostatectomy. Done by robotic-assisted da Vinci Surgical System. Drs. assured us that this should be all it takes to get rid of the cancer and I would be free of this terrible disease. Unfortunately just a few months later my PSA was on the rise and the next steps needed to be taken. I immediately got my first shot of Lupron, which ended up every three months for the next two years. During this time radiation was also needed. All prep work was done over the next couple months followed by 40 day in a row (minus weekends) of radiation of the abdomen. after the prep work and before the radiation started I took a break for a motorcycle ride across the US. See tab on Run for the wall under Motorcycle rides.

Two more years of treatment. The only thing I had to do was take the Lupron shot and a few pills. The great thing about Lupron is as it kills your testosterone it also leaves you with “Hot Flashes”. Guy’s when this time comes for your wife give her all the grace you can muster. So 2019 comes around and all I need to do is stop in for bloodwork every 3 months. This continues for the next few years. Then in June of 2021 The Oncologist states that I am doing so well that it is time to go to every 6 months for checking blood. The problem I had and did not act on was that every past PSA test showed less then .09 PSA and this one in June was the first to show and increase. I ask the Dr fix from here The purpose of this of course is to confirm that the level of PSA in my body does not go up. A prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test is a blood test that measures the level of PSA in a sample of your blood. PSA is a protein made by your prostate. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system. It lies just below the bladder. It makes the fluid part of semen. Well 6 months later my PSA level has increased to a level much higher then expected. From here we start all kinds of new tests.

September 2023

Blood work and Oncology visit. Mid month blood was taken for testing. the following week I received results and thankfully all good. PSA was measured at <.1. That is as good as it gets. Dr. follow up was pretty senseless since I had the results already. I did have to get a port flush and of course the quarterly shot of Lupron. The nurse giving me the shot was a nice guy we talked about Lake Owyhee and the river flowing out of it. Got me excited to do a little fishing. Next stop that day was Ridley’s and a few words with Mike (Manager of the produce dept.) the fisherman. He brought me over to the connected ACE Hardware store to buy some new lure’s for fishing. From there to the backyard to test out the new lure. So many fish on the line I have to start a new section about fishing.