ZERO ® – ADVANCED PROSTATE CANCER NEWS
WINTER 2024/2025
MY ADVANCED PROSTATE CANCER JOURNEY
‘Twas the day before Christmas 2020, the weather was mostly cloudy with some light snow in the area and Christmas spirit in the air. Little did I know that in a matter of a few hours, I would be handed a diagnosis that would change every aspect of my life as I knew it.
vanity, food as nutrition over comfort, and mental health for survival over shame. Mind, Body, Soul; the trifecta that life force fed to me in a crash course for survival. In short, I learned how to exist in this new life and accept that this was as good as it was going to get. I start year 5 this month and it hasn’t been without its share of anxiety. I participated in my first clinical trial in July 2023 when faced with castrate resistance to hormone therapy which led to disease progression. During this time I also had 10 cycles of radiation to the most aggressive spinal tumors which seemingly shrunk those and I haven’t had any significant pain in that area for quite some time. In July 2024, I started a Phase 1 trial using bipolar androgen therapy with Sipuleucel-T. By August my PSA shot up to 272. Today, I am not without worry. My latest PSA shows rising numbers and at the time of this writing, I live every day not knowing if this is the start of the slow crawl to “game over” or if my body still has some fight left in it. It’s mostly out of my hands now other than the way I live with it. I continue to treat my mind and body well and do not take a single day for granted. I practice gratitude and continue to lean into healthy habits and behaviors that keep my mindset where it needs to be to survive this disease. Hope is a powerful drug and I can only hope that my time on this earth isn’t nearly over yet. I will continue to do what I need to do to be here as long as I can. I can only hope that a cure is not too far down the road. I hope.
Darik Pearson
“So why are you here?” the oncologist said. My wife and I looked at each other bewildered...”Umm, I was hoping you could tell us...” I answered. Now, I knew I had prostate cancer by the time I reached this appointment, but no one would tell me how bad my prognosis was. I was afraid to Google too much because my mindset at this juncture was “it’s not a thing ‘til it’s a thing.” So for the most part I was going about my daily life as I always had been. At the time of this appointment, I knew very little about the disease, the treatments involved, or what the average life expectancy was. I was completely clueless about what was coming. “Your disease is not curable but it can be managed, similar to diabetes” the oncologist stoically stated. I thought to myself, “well that doesn’t sound that bad.” Except, of course, diabetes doesn’t typically have the same end game. Perhaps this was just my doctor’s soft handling of delivering a Stage 4 Gleason 9 de novo diagnosis to a 48-year-old man in the prime of his life with two young children. To this day, I don’t really know how I reacted in that moment. Numb is the only adjective that comes to mind. Little did I know that the next four years would become the greatest education in life that I would ever experience. Years 1-3 were full of adjustments. I had to learn how to become a person undergoing cancer treatment. NOT a person surviving cancer, but surviving cancer treatment. You see, even though I recognize that it’s ultimately the tumor growth that will be my end, it’s the treatment prolonging that end that I needed to survive. I needed to learn how to survive life without testosterone which for me meant hourly hot flashes, unparalleled fatigue, and nausea. I needed to learn how to cope with metabolic challenges like high blood pressure, weight management, heart health, bone health, and mood control. I had to learn how to re-invent myself from the in-it-to-win-it “party guy” to the more deliberate “what can I do today to keep myself alive” guy. I learned the importance of resistance training for wellness over
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