"Older backpackers"-What concessions are you willing to make as you age?

[Roger Caffin]

Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

[Graham F]

I got a lighter coffee pot! I also conceded I needed some whisky, so I just take it. Hey you only live once.

[Larry Swearingen]

I’ve been following this thread without comment since the beginning.
I’m 72 this year and two weeks ago diagnosed with prostate cancer (low level)
after a biopsy. I’ve been told that Active Surveillance is not really an option
due to my high PSA readings and a bad MRI as well as the positive biopsy.
I don’t have any symptoms yet other than having to pee a lot and often so I
plan on going ahead with my hiking plans for the spring and summer and schedule
any treatment (radiation or surgery) for the Fall so I can recover over the winter.
With all the possible side effects I figure that I need to get’er done now and
do the nasty stuff later.
I’m planning on a hike from Silver City, NM north on the CDT starting in late April.
Some hiking in CO and WY in late July/Aug.
After that it will depend on how I can recover. So I guess that’s the Concession I
need to make as I age.

Larry

[Eric Blumensaadt]

Larry,

Go for it. We have no guarantees in this life so Carpe Diem. Hell, I could get shot by a jealous husband or hit by a garbage truck! ;o)

That’s why I backpacked the Grand Canyon North Rim to South Rim last November. The last day, going up to the South Rim was a gut buster but I still enjoyed the scenery.

Please post your trip and photos here on BPL.

 

[Jane Baack]

Larry,

Your situation is suddenly a lot more complicated than that of many others. Good for you for going ahead with plans for spring and summer. I assume the doctors will let you know if they disagree with your decision to wait for any procedures/treatment until after your hikes. Hope you’ll let us all know how your trips went even if you don’t provide a full Trip Report. Hope you have good weather for your trips and great trails!

[Larry Swearingen]

Will do.

Larry

[Larry Swearingen]

April 20, 2018

Well things are going South.   My PSA has jumped up to 18.9 and I need to get treatment soon.

So my hiking plans have changed as I’ll start Radiation Therapy in a few weeks .  5 1/2 weeks at 5 days per week.  So that sort of shoots down most, if not all, of the Spring/Summer.  I spent a LOT of time in denial researching online prostate cancer but have now resolved myself to it.

So……I’m hoping to be recovered enough to head out to Colorado in late July to see friends but don’t know if I’ll be up to hiking at that elevation that soon.   Hoping to make it up to Isle Royale by late summer after the black flies have gone.

Wish me luck,

Larry Swearingen

Fort Wayne, IN

[Roger Caffin]

Good Luck Larry.
Keep walking, even if it is just little 4 hr walks with morning tea somewhere.
Cheers
Roger

[Geoff Caplan]

Good luck Larry – from what I’ve read regular walking can help improve outcomes, so you’re hopefully in good shape to get through this.

I’m hitting my mid 60s, but have the additional challenge of a chronic fatigue disease that affects muscle metabolism and recovery. Right now, carefully targeted training combined with the lightest and most ergonomic gear I can find means I’m still able to trundle along relatively pain-free and I have an ambitious bucket list. But I’m very aware that one or two more relapses could mean the end of thru-hikes and high-routes. So my vaguely formulated contingency plan is:

1. Section-hike rather than thru-hike, and be happy I’m still out there
2. Or failing that, develop my interest in film and make documentaries about high places. My inspiration is the wonderful Life of a Mountain: Scafell Pike by film maker Terry Abraham. This would involve an intense relationship with the mountains without having to grind out the miles, and learning new skills would add a sense of challenge

For those who don’t know Terry’s work, here’s a couple of trailers. Stunning mountain photography interspersed with an exploration of the local culture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k-DUZivB8c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGiNJsxP-4w.

[Kimberly Wersal]

Sorry to hear that the PSA is climbing so quickly… but I’m kind of relieved to see you are starting treatment very soon (the idea of waiting months before treatment makes me anxious!).  Many people seem to tolerate radiation quite well). I went thru the cancer thing 2 years ago with Ovarian Cancer (extensive surgery, 4 months of chemo) and really worked to get walking/running/hiking again.  I started back in with short hikes the last month of chemo, and was able to make a backpacking trip less than 3 months after finishing treatment.

You’ll have to see how it goes– with luck, your summer won’t be a total loss… and the radiation will beat down the cancer.

[Larry Swearingen]

I’m hoping that I can get the Radiation treatments scheduled every day in the afternoon so I can continue my morning walks with a group of friends.  We walk a 5 mile route 3 days a week with the option to cut it short at 3 miles. If I have to force myself to do that I will. I’m definitely avoiding surgery because of the Quality of Life side effects and Radiation seems to have the same cancer killing end results.

I understand that Chemo is a real Ass-Kicker and hope to avoid that.  I guess the main thing that I’ll get is Fatigue and Nausea and that takes a few weeks to kick in. That continues for a couple of weeks after treatment stops.  They have meds for Nausea but not Fatigue I guess. At least I’ll avoid the catheter that comes with Surgery.

So I’ll just have to play the cards I’m dealt for this summer and see how it goes. I’ll need a more positive attitude than that now won’t I ?  My Goal will be to get back on the Trail again.  Thank you all for the encouragement.

Can I get a Med for a “more positive Attitude”  ?       {:>)

Larry

[Geoff Caplan]

Larry

Going a bit OT here, but if you have to go through chemo or radiation, you want to check out NT Factor:

http://ntfactor.com

It’s a highly innovative nutritional supplement that reduces fatigue and nausea during treatment, improves nutritional status and improves outcomes. It also reduces the risk of chronic ongoing fatigue, which is a little discussed side-effect of cancer treatment.

Developed by a scientist who wrote the most cited paper of all time for the top rated oncology clinic in the US. There is serious science behind this. Extensively tested for safety and effectiveness. And it’s relatively affordable.

There’s nothing else like it. I used to distribute this product in the UK, and the customer feedback was great. Nothing works for everyone, but this is low cost and zero risk, so it’s surely worth a try?

[Jerry Adams]

Is any immune treatment available?  A lot of recent progress in this area.  Currently, it works better on some genetic cancer cells but not others.  You should have waited a few years and there’d be even more progress. : )

Radiation harms non cancer cells also

[Larry Swearingen]

Well Jerry, I would certainly liked to have been able to wait a couple more years for this.   {:>) But not gonna happen.

“Radiation harms non cancer cells also”                                                                                                           I’m aware of this.  The Doc says that’s why they just do 5 days of radiation in a row and then take a weekend break.   The two day weekend gives the healthy cells a chance to regenerate.  Yeah….right.   Docs and Nurses need a weekend off too.

I’ll be getting Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy which is a highly focused stream of x-rays so they hopefully do little damage outside the prostate. The doc sticks 4 or 5 little gold markers in the prostate first so the Imaging device can see exactly where the stream is aiming.  This is all computer controlled and the stream of x-rays comes at the target from a lot of different angles.  That way the area outside the target doesn’t get the high dose.  If you visualize that it is the Intersection of the different angles that gets the high dosage concentration.

This is way too much detail for a hiking forum.    :>(

Lets just say that I’m not going to be having a lot of fun over the next few months but plan on getting back out as soon as I can.  Now THAT is a Concession that I have to make.

Larry

 

 

[AK Granola]

Geoff – I will use that ntfactor website with my students for a critical thinking exercise. What snake oil! There are no “scientists” listed or named, there are no scientific studies cited, there is no physical address to this company, no board of directors, no nothing. Complete utter nonsense. Trust no website that isn’t absolutely forthright with who and where they are. A PO box?! And unfortunately it’s aimed at desperate people who don’t trust their doctors. Years ago a man in my community who was an active, fit and healthy outdoorsman, who also founded our Co-op grocery, opted not to go with known treatments for prostate cancer. He had a low level case and could probably have survived. Instead he used some herbal potion. Sadly, that “treatment” was useless and he is no longer here. We lost a great community member. I wish false remedies could be banned.

Medical science is not perfect, but it’s pretty damn good. It’s better than hocus pocus. We might have to make concessions to our activity levels or how we enjoy nature as we age, but we don’t have to make concessions to getting good health care, at least I f we can afford it.

[Jerry Adams]

ask your doctor about immune therapy

it’s rapidly evolving and maybe some doctors aren’t familiar with the latest

I have a friend with prostate cancer, treated for several years.  His cancer is not the type that responds to current immune treatments so he’s done radiation and so forth.  Those treatments have been effective but there are side effects.

[Larry Swearingen]

Jerry, Immunotherapy/vaccine therapy is a very limited treatment for metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer.  I don’t have metastatic cancer plus I am not about to change direction now.  I just want to get this going and over as soon as possible.

Karen, Good call on the NTFactor.  I did a scholar.google.com search on NTFactor and came up with ONE BS study with a grand total of 20 participants but a lot of medical sounding buzz words and inconclusive results.  Note:   No doctors involved or at least no letters after the names on the paper.  I also did a google maps search on the address and then a street view.  It’s a little rental office in a row  of shabby units with a brand new sign.    Does NOT lend confidence.

BTW the first page of most google.com search results is usually all paid up crap.  My doc told me that if I want to see actual study results to go to  http://scholar.google.com .

Larry

 

 

 

[MJ H]

PubMed is the main way people I know search for medical research reports. Some of the findings will not have the full text results, but if it is new (since 2008) and funded by the U.S. government funded it (which is to say, most of it done in the U.S.), they have to have the full text available through PubMed by a year after publication.

Google Scholar is probably easier to use, but I’m used to what I learned back when I never knew if Google or AltaVista was the wave of the future.

[Jerry Adams]

“Jerry, Immunotherapy/vaccine therapy is a very limited treatment for metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer.  I don’t have metastatic cancer plus I am not about to change direction now.  I just want to get this going and over as soon as possible.”

Ahhh… it sounds like you and your doctor are familiar with it.  This is rapidly advancing and not all doctors are familiar with the latest treatment and sometimes asking about it could change things.

I don’t normally give unsolicited advice but my friend was talking about this.  Radiation does have side effects.  But it is effective in his experience.

I get what you mean about not wanting to change direction and just get it over with.

There are other cancers where they’ve tried conventional treatments which didn’t work, then immune therapy which did work without the side effects, but the side effects of the conventional treatment had already happened.  They’re now doing immune therapy first.  But just for specific cancers not relevant to you.

I hope things go well.

[Larry Swearingen]

Everything has “Side Effects.”    Even a placebo shows them for some people.  The mind is a funny thing. Not everyone gets an unwanted side effect from a medication and if you pay too much attention to what’s possible on a medication bottle you would never take a pill at all.

Larry

[Geoff Caplan]

Karen

I think you need to check out the NTFactor site a little more carefully, as virtually everything you say is factually incorrect. You make an extremely serious and offensive accusation – I do not recommend “snake oil” to people suffering life-threatening illness.

NT Factor was developed by Professor Garth Nicolson in conjunction with the renowned Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas, currently rated the #1 oncology clinic in the USA.

Dr Nicholson is the author of over 600 peer reviewed papers on the biology of cancer and ageing. His classic paper on the Fluid Mosaic Model of the cell membrane was published in Science and is listed by the Guiness Book of Records as the most cited scientific paper of all time.  As you can see from his bio, he is one of the most respected and highly awarded scientists in the field of biology.

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Garth_L._Nicolson

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/University_of_Texas_MD_Anderson_Cancer_Center

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Fluid_mosaic_model

There are a number of peer-reviewed papers on the effectiveness and safety of NT Factor. Nowhere is it claimed that NT Factor is an alternative to conventional treatment as you suggested. It is an innovative nutritional treatment that helps repair the damage to the cell wall caused by radiation and chemo by replacing oxidised lipids. Supporting cell function reduces nausea and fatigue and helps the cell absorb and metabolise nutrition. As a leading authority on the cell wall, Dr Nicolson was ideally qualified to develop such a supplement. Millions of doses of NT Factor have been prescribed in the most prestigious and evidence-based oncology clinics, and the results have been excellent and often dramatic.

I have had direct communication with Dr Nicolson and with many highly credentialed clinicians and pharmacists who prescribe and recommend NT Factor. And is has transformed the lives of more than one of my friends, to the astonishment of their doctors. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone undergoing therapy for cancer.

Once you have reviewed the facts, I would welcome your retraction and apology.

[Greg Mihalik]

Best of luck Larry.

It’s another thru-hike with an indefinite end point. Keep looking for the light at the end of the tunnel.  I’m 2.5 years out from a major medical event and just now getting back to where I was.  It was frustrating and discouraging at times but bit-by-bit things fell into place.

PMA, do your homework, keep the mental stress in check, exercise, eat your greens, and all of that.

Take Care.

[Ken Thompson]

<h3>From Geoff’s link,</h3>
<h3>“These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. The information provided on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other health care professional or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosis or treatment of any health problem or for prescription of any medication or other treatment. You should consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise or supplementation program, before taking any medication, or if you have or suspect you might have a health problem. You should not stop taking any pharmaceutical product without first consulting your prescribing physician.”</h3>
I’m with Karen.

[Roger Caffin]

Dunno about that. That disclaimer features on most pages, and is a very honest statement of where they are.

Cheers

[Kimberly Wersal]

They have made huge advances in radiation therapy in the last decade or so.  The targeted approach minimizes damage to surrounding tissues.  If it had been suitable for my cancer, I would have preferred it to the systemic slash and burn that is chemo.  Immunotherapies show a lot of promise for the future, but at this point are effective for only a small minority of cancer patients.

Having a goal is a good start.  Crush the cancer ASAP, then get on with regular life…. fun stuff, like a backpacking trip!

[Author]

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