I can sympathize with the former president as MY prostate cancer has metastasized to the upper lobe of my right lung and at least one lymph node in my chest.
I was diagnosed nearly four years ago and underwent nine-weeks of radiation treatments, which at the time we thought we had it beat, but this past October my PSA spiked back up to nearly 8.0 and the scans showed that the cancer had moved, but the prostate was clear so the radiation worked, just that some cancer cells 'escaped' before they were killed. The diagnosis is that it's stage-four, incurable and inoperable, but it is treatable, if you can afford it. Thank God for Medicare Part 'D'.
Last year the out-of-pocket cap for prescription drugs was $3,200. This year it's $2,000. The medication that they have me on is $17,296/MONTH. I hit my cap the first month of this year. I also have to have an injection of a hormone suppressant every six-months, which costs close to $7,000, but my Medicare Part 'B' pays for that. This drug regimen has been around for about 10-years now and has been shown to be very effective for at least three to five-years, and perhaps longer if we've caught it soon enough. So far, all of my tests (blood draws every three-months) appears to show that I'm responding well. The real test will come in October when they do another set of scans and then we'll know if the drugs are doing what they're intended to do, keeping it from spreading. If it stays contained, I can live with it for at least the foreseeable future. The goal is to get it to where it's simply a chronic condition, sort of like diabetes, incurable but treatable.
Anyway, I hope that there are treatment options for the former president which would offer him the same sort of prognosis as I've been given. Now there's an age difference, Biden is 82 and I'll be 78 in August, so that might complicate things, so we'll have to see.
OCU
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