This is a long read, sorry. It is hard to believe the time has passed. This anniversary snuck up on me. One that I really don’t celebrate except once a year when I have my annual and I get the all-clear. I always cringe when I see cancer threads come up here. I don't always post to them but know, without fail, I do pray for those that the threads are about. This is a brotherhood Randy Brint (and others) shared. He was the first to reach out after diagnosis and we had numerous phone and live conversations about it over the years.
On February 3, 2015, I first saw a clinical oncologist that God had led us to. Cindy had been looking at alternative treatments for prostate cancer and his name had come up. This was about a year earlier. Dr. Robert Amato, may he rest in peace. Dr. Amato was not like a normal doctor as his bedside manner was more like sitting and talking to your next-door neighbor. He was formerly with MD Anderson but was now practicing, researching, and conducting clinical trials at the Memorial Hermann/UT Medical Cancer Center. At the time, he was the Director of the Division of Oncology at UTHealth McGovern Medical School. I credit him with God’s help of extending my life. His methods included Chemotherapy, which wasn’t the norm for prostate cancer.
The next several months were tough, consisting of two 6-week sessions of the cancer-killing poison with a two-week break in between each session plus Lupron injections in the abdomen at specified intervals. An alternating chemo every other week. One they called the “Red Devil”. I had to wear a pump for that one and return the next day to have it unhooked. This is what I wore the last time I saw my mama alive. On the day of the first chemo, she was in the hospital in the Woodlands TX. Her cancer was about to take her. I had to go visit her. She wanted to see the contraption due to me using natural products for the first three years of having cancer. She wanted to see I was doing something more in tune with modern, conventional medicine. This was on Wednesday, February 25th and she went to be with Jesus the next Sunday. I was unable to be there.
Except for a brief hiccup caused by extreme dehydration, the chemo was finished and Dr. Amato told me there was no evidence of the cancer. He said, “You could probably go without the surgery but I wouldn’t advise it.” Robotic surgery was performed after a time of healing. Dr. Amato didn’t use everyone in his own hospital system but chose who he believed was the best. Dr. Brian Miles, one of the best in his field and associated with Methodist Hospital, would perform the surgery in July and they were confident that all the cancer had been removed. He had told Dr. Amato that after healing from the surgery, I needed to go through the normal radiation protocol. Dr. Amato told him no, we aren’t going to just spray the area. I was released and we took a wait-and-see approach with regular surveillance which is normal.
I now only have an annual surveillance through my regular doctor. Dr. Amato succumbed to the very disease he fought and taught to cure in 2019. The cancer did return in 2017, about the size of a dime. Dr. Amato had a tumor in his brain removed in March of that year but when I went for surveillance in May, he was in clinic. I asked what he was doing there after he explained his situation. He said, “This is what I do”. He got me through the radiation treatment in the fall and never returned to clinical work. I hope with all my heart that someone has carried on his work.
Took a couple of treatments before I started finding hair on my pillow. The last shot at Minute Maid was the trip for the surgery.
​
On February 3, 2015, I first saw a clinical oncologist that God had led us to. Cindy had been looking at alternative treatments for prostate cancer and his name had come up. This was about a year earlier. Dr. Robert Amato, may he rest in peace. Dr. Amato was not like a normal doctor as his bedside manner was more like sitting and talking to your next-door neighbor. He was formerly with MD Anderson but was now practicing, researching, and conducting clinical trials at the Memorial Hermann/UT Medical Cancer Center. At the time, he was the Director of the Division of Oncology at UTHealth McGovern Medical School. I credit him with God’s help of extending my life. His methods included Chemotherapy, which wasn’t the norm for prostate cancer.
The next several months were tough, consisting of two 6-week sessions of the cancer-killing poison with a two-week break in between each session plus Lupron injections in the abdomen at specified intervals. An alternating chemo every other week. One they called the “Red Devil”. I had to wear a pump for that one and return the next day to have it unhooked. This is what I wore the last time I saw my mama alive. On the day of the first chemo, she was in the hospital in the Woodlands TX. Her cancer was about to take her. I had to go visit her. She wanted to see the contraption due to me using natural products for the first three years of having cancer. She wanted to see I was doing something more in tune with modern, conventional medicine. This was on Wednesday, February 25th and she went to be with Jesus the next Sunday. I was unable to be there.
Except for a brief hiccup caused by extreme dehydration, the chemo was finished and Dr. Amato told me there was no evidence of the cancer. He said, “You could probably go without the surgery but I wouldn’t advise it.” Robotic surgery was performed after a time of healing. Dr. Amato didn’t use everyone in his own hospital system but chose who he believed was the best. Dr. Brian Miles, one of the best in his field and associated with Methodist Hospital, would perform the surgery in July and they were confident that all the cancer had been removed. He had told Dr. Amato that after healing from the surgery, I needed to go through the normal radiation protocol. Dr. Amato told him no, we aren’t going to just spray the area. I was released and we took a wait-and-see approach with regular surveillance which is normal.
I now only have an annual surveillance through my regular doctor. Dr. Amato succumbed to the very disease he fought and taught to cure in 2019. The cancer did return in 2017, about the size of a dime. Dr. Amato had a tumor in his brain removed in March of that year but when I went for surveillance in May, he was in clinic. I asked what he was doing there after he explained his situation. He said, “This is what I do”. He got me through the radiation treatment in the fall and never returned to clinical work. I hope with all my heart that someone has carried on his work.
Took a couple of treatments before I started finding hair on my pillow. The last shot at Minute Maid was the trip for the surgery.
​
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