Remission?

I've received a few inquiries about what the new PSA score means to Mike's cancer. Is he cured? No. Is he in remission? Good question.

I think an analogy is in order. Think of the PSA score as the number of people that respond to a fire. When the score is high, there's big trouble going on. Lots of people trying to help/respond/contain the damage. It's simply a count of responders in the body. The higher the score, the worse the fire. A normal PSA is below 1. Mike started at 68. We're down to 1!

The treatments he's receiving are like an outside source of water needed to put the fire out. As the fire is contained and doused, people leave the scene. The score goes down. That's good.

HOWEVER, the fire itself is not the problem. The building is still burned to a crisp. No amount of water can make the building look and act as if nothing happened. Not only that, but the fire got into the main infrastructure of the city. The local fire department had no effect on it because their hoses were burned, their trucks melted, etc. The fire is out but the damage is irreperable.

The hope is that the arson that started this blaze will lay low for a while since everything is soaking wet. This is as close to "remission" as it gets. The cancer stops growing. We keep throwing water on the area and hope that things stay cool for as long as possible.

So now we wait. And yes, at some point the arson may show up again.