Visit with Dr Jones

Went and saw Dr Jones on Monday with Pops. Went over some basics of meds, pain, lymphedema, etc. News of note is that Pops PSA went from 1.8 to 4.0 in th last blood work. It raised "to a point of concern" to Dr Jones. At the end of the visit Dr Jones talked to him about "playing the game" to stay alive. He also said "it could be 3 to 5 years" of playing the game. Later on, Pops was bummed out and almost despondent. Lone Star's deal is this: If I can function and have a quality of life that represents fulfillment- great, If I can't have quality that allows fulfillment and I am just a shell of myself, then what's the point.

With this in mind Pops wants to look at hospice. I have a nurse that I have known for over 10 years who is a hospice coordinator. She came out and talked to them at their house on Tuesday. Granted, we are not jumping into anything. Pops and EE were all excited and ready to go on the hospice route that day. KA and I emphasized to them that changing meds and stopping Casodez and Lupron will most likely not make you feel better. In fact, you'll probably feel worse. There will be more medicine, almost guaranteed, as the cancer advances- just different medicines.

The plan is for myself to talk with both Dr Jones and Dr Te and get their thoughts on the whole hospice route. Our general plan has been to stay the course through the first of the year and then look at hospice options to help his wanted outcomes and also assist with care needs. Idea being we want him to have a good holiday season. Feeling being, if he does all these changes he will feel even worse with family coming in for the holidays. He doesn't seemed concerned with this- but I am.

Bottom line: it is his decision on what route we take and when we take it. Myself and KA are just trying to accumulate all the knowledge and aspects of care to make their decisions as easy as possible...