Tag: CT Scan

Month 191 – Calm before the Storm

On By DanIn Hormone Therapy, Prostate CancerLeave a comment

It’s been a busy time since the last regular monthly post, but in a good way.

I managed to unplug for five days by taking a trip to chase autumn colors in the Eastern Sierra using Bishop, California as my base. I was a week or two early, but still managed to find some good colors. When I returned, I was Mr. Social Butterfly, going to one of the San Diego Padres’ last home baseball games; attending a friend’s birthday party; going to our monthly trivia night with friends at a favorite watering hole; and then watching the Padres beat my hometown Chicago Cubs, all in my first week back. It was good to disconnect and be distracted for a while. I needed that.

Before leaving on my trip, I participated in an online advanced prostate cancer support group run by the AnCan Foundation. (I had featured one of their videos on this blog back in April.) Within the group, there were a few doctors but pretty much everyone else were fellow prostate cancer patients sharing their experiences.

There was a ton of information that was flowing, so it was a tad like trying to take a sip of water from a firehose, but I did come away with some valuable input. Key points included:

  • Different experiences on different ADT + ARPI drug combinations when it came to side effects. The consensus seemed to be Orgovyx® and darolutamide were the preferred combination.
  • There was also a recommendation for me to push to get an Axumin PET scan given the four negative PSMA PET scans and the negative [F18] FDG PET scan.
  • One of the members strongly encouraged me to connect with Dr. Matthew Rettig who operates out of the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center and UCLA. (When I searched on “best prostate cancer medical oncologists in Southern California,” his name was number two on the results.)
  • They encouraged me to more thoroughly investigate a VA disability rating given the changes in how prostate cancer is addressed under the PACT Act. That’s low on my priority list for a variety of reasons that I won’t go into here.

I have to admit that, given my trip, my social calendar, and my need to unwind from both, I’ve been a bit slow in digesting the meeting’s contents and determining how I want to proceed.

Dr. Rettig’s opinion would be valuable at some point, and I’m just figuring out how and when to do that. I have the CT and bone scans scheduled next month (see below) and, to be honest, I don’t expect that they’ll show anything. I’m thinking that a set of negative results on those scans would give me strong justification for getting an Axumin scan and for the referral to Dr. Rettig. I can say, “I tried what you recommended. Now let’s humor me and find a way to get the Axumin scan.”

The VA can be a bit rigid in its protocols and procedures, and I’m inclined to go through the medical oncologist at VAMC San Diego to get the referral to VAMC West Los Angeles. I don’t want to be stepping on anyone’s toes, or finding out that I’ve inadvertently transferred my full-time care to Los Angeles. (The 147-mile / 236 km drive between home and VAMC WLA is brutal.)

For now, I’m content to wait the six weeks until the scans, get their results, and then push to see Dr. Rettig and go for an Axumin scan if needed. I should have an updated PSA test result at that point, too. Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind. 🙂

As I’ve been writing this post on Friday night, 9 October, I’ve had one ear open on the forecast for Tropical Storm Rachel, which should be arriving in the San Diego / Tijuana area in about 24 hours. The National Hurricane Center issued a Tropical Storm Watch for San Diego, and this is only the second time ever that a tropical alert has been issued on the west coast. (The last time was in 2023 for Hurricane Hilary. The last time a tropical system actually made landfall on the California coast was 1939.)

UPDATE 5 P.M. PDT, Saturday – Rachel’s forecasted track has moved a bit to the east. Friday night, it was going to pass about 17 miles / 27 km from my house near Tecate; the current track has it passing about 85 miles / 137 km east of my house near Mexicali.

It looks like the brunt of the storm will kick in around 11 p.m. and last through about 10 a.m. tomorrow. One forecast model shows wind gusts in my neighborhood will get up to about 45 mph / 72 km/h. It the mountains east of San Diego, it’s showing they may get up as high as 90 mph / 144 km/h.

The reason I’m so interested in tropical systems is because I rode out Hurricane Iwa which hammered Oahu (where I lived) and Kauai in 1982. It was quite the unnerving experience, About 2 years later, one of the ships I was assigned to got caught up in the periphery of a typhoon while we were at sea, and waves washed away one of our inflatable life rafts. Experience tells me to heed the warnings and take precautions. Better safe than sorry.

More to come. Be well!

Rachel’s Track Friday Night
Rachel’s Track Saturday afternoon

What’s Next

DateEvent
23 November 2026CT and bone scans
1 December 2026PSA Test
8 December 2026Medical oncologist appointment

Header image: North Lake near Bishop, California

Day 3,901 – CT Scan Results

On By DanIn imaging, Prostate CancerLeave a comment

Let’s start with the BLUF:

No definite evidence of locally recurrent or metastatic disease within the abdomen or pelvis.

(If you don’t know, BLUF = Bottom Line Up Front).

There was one 9 mm kidney-shaped lymph node that caught their attention, but didn’t think it to be remarkable.

They also commented on a bunch of my other organs and bits and pieces, but nothing seemed too out of the ordinary for any of them aside from a few dents and scratches from 63+ years of normal wear-and-tear and countless miles/kilometers.

The fact that the CT scan didn’t pick anything of substance up is a good thing and a bad thing. Good because it didn’t see anything; bad because it didn’t see anything. The likelihood of it detecting the lesions at my PSA level were small, and we knew that going into this. So even though we didn’t see anything, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not there.

I did get a chuckle out of one line in the report:

Multidetector CT abdomen/pelvis was obtained after the uneventful administration of intravenous contrast.

Uneventful for who??? The radiologist? Sure. I did everything in my power to not puke all over their $300,000 scanner. 😲

I expect we’ll have the same result with bone scan next week, but time will tell.

That’s all for now.

Be well!

Day 3,899 – CT Scan

On By DanIn Prostate Cancer, Recurrence7 Comments

You know me. I love tracking things, and this post is the 400th published post on this blog. Woo-hoo! 🎈🎉✨ Of course, I would have preferred to not have written any of them at all, but that’s life.

I thought I had had a CT scan in the past, but if I did, I don’t remember it being anything like what I experienced today. It kicked my ass. Technically, it was the contrast they injected into me that kicked my ass. The scan—sliding in and out of the scanner—was a non-event.

The radiologist forewarned me of the sensations that I would experience shortly after he injected the contrast. The sensation of a full and warm bladder? Check. Metallic taste in my mouth? Check. A warm sensation throughout my body? Check.

What he didn’t do a very good job of was forewarning me of the intensity of the some of these things. At one point, I thought I was going to vomit like Vesuvius. It was awful. As soon as he stopped the IV flow of contrast, I could feel some of these side effects dissipating. (But not nearly as quickly as they came on.)

I didn’t even bother to ask the technician if they saw anything odd on the scan as they were running the test. I’ll usually do that because sometimes, if you’re lucky, the technician will help you out. They may not be able to be all that specific, but I’ve had one or two tell me, “You really don’t have anything to worry about.” I was just more focused on getting out of there without puking.

The whole appointment went like clockwork and went faster than I expected. My appointment was for 2:30 p.m. I pulled into the parking garage at 1:45 p.m.; was checked in a Radiology by 2 p.m.; on the scanner bed by 2:10 p.m.; and headed back to my car by 2:35 p.m. Again, I know there are tons of complaints about the VA healthcare system, but San Diego VA Medical Center has been top-notch as far as I’m concerned.

The radiologist thought they would have the full results available by Friday.

I’ll have to admit that on my commute to work this morning, I had a bit of a knot in my stomach. Not because I was afraid of the scan (now I am—a little), but because this is the beginning of the process that will give me results I may not want to hear.

On a related note, my employer-provided healthcare insurance did confirm that the Department of Nuclear Medicine at UCLA is in network, so that’s a good thing.

What’s next? Here’s an estimated timeline:

  • Get online access to CT Scan results sometime this weekend or early next week.
  • Have the bone scan on Friday, 23 July.
  • Get online access to bone scan results 3-5 business days after the scan.
  • Have a follow-up appointment to review both scan results with the urologist on 3 August.

I’ll contact UCLA to start that process and hopefully have all of my homework done in time for the appointment on 3 August.

Well, time to drink a few liters of water to purge that contrast out of me.

Be well!

Day 3,892 – Scan-a-Palooza

On By DanIn Prostate Cancer, Recurrence6 Comments

Let the radioactive fun begin!

I was able to schedule my bone and CT scans this morning with considerable ease. In fact, things will happen much sooner than I thought they might. My CT scan is scheduled next Wednesday, 14 July, and my bone scan is scheduled Friday, 23 July.

I have to go for some pre-scan lab work tomorrow afternoon to ensure that my kidneys are working fine and won’t be damaged by one of the contrasts.

I haven’t given up on the Ga-68 PSMA PET scan. In fact, I wrote my health insurance company an email about 4:30 a.m. as I tossed and turned. (Last night was hell. If I slept more than 2 hours—non-consecutively—that was about it.) They tout having a response within 2 business days, so we’ll see if they come through with that.

UCLA is out of network for my insurance company, so I’d have to cough up 40% of the cost if they’re going to cover it at all. I’m okay with that. (For my overseas readers, welcome to U.S. health care systems!)

So that’s the latest and greatest. More to come, I’m sure.

Be well!