My dad used to be a very young "old man". It's in his genes. His grandfather was born in 1898, and died in 1988 after decades of being a farmer, a coal miner, and a railroad worker. His mother died in 2019 and at age of almost 97. She could do everything until she was 92 when she fell and hurt her head. Up until 2022, his 80th year, dad was very active.
For years dad did what you're supposed to do for a man: get your prostate checked. The doctor that saw my father was a bit of a charlatan. He made his money removing prostates. Dad's PSA scores were always a little high, so his doctor prescribed very high doses of a drug to keep the markers in check. One of the side effects of this drug is that it can actually make prostate cancer appear. WHich it did in 2020.
Still, prostate cancer is slow growing, and dad's prostate was unusually small. He was OK at the time. But the good doctor wanted dad to have his prostate removed, and dad was hesitant. So, after that his doctor lost interest in him.
The last time dad saw his urologist, he was getting a 16-section biopsy of his prostate. The doctor was very aggressive with dad and cut the edge of his rectum with the probe he used to take samples from his prostate. Dad was in a lot of pain and bleeding. The doctor promptly dropped him as a patient and sent him to a local doctor here in my little town. This was in early 2020.
So Covid happened, and things were ok. He seemed fine. He saw his new doctor once or twice, just to monitor the PSA. Dad made it known he wasn't ready for anything invasive, and the numbers were OK.
But in 2021 he started having issues with what he thought were hemorrhoids. He has a lot of pain and swelling, but I noticed when I gave him creams, from medicinal to simply vaseline, it hurt him. Nothing soothed him. And then there was blood. Still, I was thinking he had an anal fissure, of IBS, or bad hemorrhoids. He refused to get himself looked at. Finally in early 2022 I took the bull by the horns and made him see a gastroenterologist. Immediately the doctor spotted the tumor. Tests revealed he had stage 2b/3 rectal cancer.
Before we started radiation treatment I asked the oncologist if he'd ever seen a patient have rectal cancer and prostate cancer at the same time. He said he had not. I told him that in my research the only time I ever saw it was the story of a patient in China whose doctor accidentally nicked his rectum with a prostate cancer probe with cells on it. I said I think this is what happened to dad. He agreed it was very possible.
Well, things have been hell on earth ever since. The radiation made him incontinent, and the Xeloda pills aged him 10 years. He's so weak now. And forgetful. And I do everything now. I am not a caregiver, but I have to be. And it's madness. For both of us it just feels like we're in a nightmare.
In January 2023 the cancer was completely gone after radiation and Xeloda and ivermectin I gave him. The doctors insisted on the infusion chemo and colostomy and dad refused. Sure enough the tumor grew back and by May of this year it was possible that it was spreading and that he had a swollen lymphode in his groin, which is almost assuredly from the radiation.
He has gotten weaker, and can't walk much. And well, it's just a terrible situation. I try and feed him well, and make sure he's comfortable. But he had more years to live and I just hate that this happened to him. All because of a zealous urologist. Cancer does not run in our family. In fact, he's the first one.
ANyway I'm new here and just wanted to say hi.
