Treated 2023 · Posted 2024
"I was SO impressed with Loma Linda - their kind, smart, faith-based approach. I continue follow up sessions for hormones there, even though it's 100 miles from my home."
Long story short, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in August of 2023. I was a Gleason 9/10. Two weeks before I was due to have surgery on my urologist's recommendation, a friend introduced me to proton therapy. He'd gone through proton therapy 18 years prior at Loma Linda University Cancer Center in Loma Linda, CA. His brother, a dentist, was treated six years prior to him.
I soon learned that because my cancer hadn't spread, I was a candidate. And based on the fact that it would most likely leave me with fewer, if any, side effects, I opted for protons and went through 39 treatments. I'm also on hormone therapy for two years.
I was SO impressed with Loma Linda - their kind, smart, faith-based approach. I continue follow up sessions for hormones there, even though it's 100 miles from my home in Thousand Oaks, CA.
After my treatment ended, I wrote a poem. I shared it with the group at the "graduation ceremony." I hope you enjoy it:
I think that I shall never see
a poem as lovely as a gantry.
When the doctor said I had a Gleason 9,
my head spun around - that can’t be mine!
So we scheduled a surgery to change my state!
I assumed my smart doc, knew my fate.
But while headed to the chop shop,
a friend of mine yelled, “Stop!"
"Loma Linda is the place to be!"
So I agreed to check it out and see...
Proton therapy, it’s time to switch!
It sounded spooky, like a witch...
Balloons and beams and a snuggly pod,
it sure didn’t seem that much like God.
But so I went, with some fear and concern,
wondering if the beam would burn...?
And what I found was a most wondrous staff,
who gave me dignity... and sometimes a laugh!
Now that I’m done with this treatment sublime,
I’ll remember the care and extended life time!
So that’s why I think I shall never see
a poem as lovely as a gantry!
Below is a photo of Alan and the "Tetelestai" sticker a former patient left on the interior of the gantry that caught his eye. "I used to be a pastor. 'Tetelestai' is the last (Greek) word that Jesus said before he died on the cross. It means - 'It is finished.' The word is not used to convey sadness or 'it's over,' but rather a victory, such as finishing a long race when you're tired but excited to be done. That sticker meant a lot to me each time I lay in the pod."
