February 17, 2021

Larry’s Radiation Treatment is Finished!

We’re (cautiously) celebrating the end of Larry’s radiation treatment for prostate cancer recurrence! Over the last four weeks, Larry has had 20 sessions of radiation therapy at the University of Michigan Hospital. He drove us to Ann Arbor and back, from our home in Holland, every day, Monday to Friday. It came to a total of 6,552 miles!

The Michigan winter weather certainly made our daily road-trips an interesting experience. We knew it might be risky, driving 3 hours to the hospital, and 3 hours back, in January and February. There were mornings when visibility was very poor!

The amazing thing was how quickly the daily road-trips became routine for us. It didn’t take us long to get used to waking up in the morning, making lunch to take with us, and getting into the car. We looked out for sights along the way; little things to make us smile. Daily road-trips for cancer radiation could so easily become stressful, miserable experiences — so we appreciated the silly things – like graffiti at the rest stop near Ann Arbor…

… and “look, surely an illusionist!” – who, it turns out, is really a dentist:

illusionist... or dentist? — Yup. Free advertising for Dr West of Battle Creek, who made us smile on our way home every day.

Most days, we stretched our legs with a short walk in Bandemer Park in Ann Arbor, after the radiation session was done. The weather in Ann Arbor was consistently brighter than the weather in Holland – and we were blessed with several days of blue skies, to walk by the river and enjoy the beauty of the snow and ice.

Larry's radiation treatment - walking by the river

What happens next? Did the radiation treatment work?

Larry’s cancer treatment isn’t over yet. He’ll continue to have monthly injections until June, and more blood tests. There will be appointments with the oncologists in Wyoming (Michigan) and (online) in Ann Arbor. It will be some months before we find out if the combination of radiation and monthly injections have been successful.

If you’ve ever heard prostate cancer described as “the good cancer”, it’s not true. This cancer is sneaky, and has a tendency to return, over and over. We put our faith in God, and in the University of Michigan doctors, and hope for the best. We also hope that our insurance will eventually agree to help with the cost of the radiation therapy. They decided unexpectedly (on Day 13) to deny Larry the treatment, and that came as a shock to us. We’re fast discovering that the cost of having cancer treatment here in the USA can be overwhelming and scary.

Thank you to everyone who’s helped and encouraged us through this!

Our thanks go to the cancer team at the University of Michigan, for taking good care of Larry. We’re also thankful to everyone who’s encouraged us in this latest “adventure”. To the people who have sent us cards, and prayed for us – thank you. We’re grateful to the friends who offered us emergency accommodation if we’d needed it. It helped to know that staying overnight would have been possible if the weather had been too terrible. Thanks also to the Detroit Handbell Ensemble for the gift that paid for one of our road-trips, and to the choir at Third Reformed Church for the huge plant that unexpectedly took up residence in our house this week!

Thanks also to our Kalamazoo Ringers family. We appreciated the generous gift that helped with the last week of our road-trips, and the personal gifts, cards and good wishes that helped us so much. And thanks to our friends on our Facebook page, who commented with kind words, and put up with oh-so-much talk about our daily road-trips. We love and appreciate you all.

Larry's radiation treatment — Larry with his certificate!

January 18, 2021

Larry’s Prostate Cancer – the Next Chapter

Some of you may remember that Larry had prostate surgery at the beginning of 2019. We originally had high hopes that the surgery would be the end of Larry’s prostate cancer. Towards the end of 2019, we were told that Larry was cancer-free, and we celebrated.

However, things changed in late December 2019, when one of Larry’s routine blood tests came back with a worrying result. Hoping it was just a blip, he did another test, and the result was worse. We were referred to a local radiation oncologist here in Holland, and told that there was a high probability that the cancer had returned.

Prostate cancer can hide for a long time!

The problem with prostate cancer recurrence is that it’s not always easy to know where the cancer is hiding. After a couple more blood tests, the radiation oncologist referred Larry for an Axumin PET scan in Grand Rapids at the beginning of May. However, here in the USA, it often seems that medical treatment is decided not so much by the doctors as by the insurance companies. Our health insurance company refused to approve the PET scan, so the appointment was cancelled. We were very disappointed, but focused on Larry’s shoulder surgery, which had been scheduled for May.

Last summer, as he recovered from shoulder surgery, Larry had more tests. He had a bone scan, an MRI, a kidney ultrasound, and a renal nuclear scan. None of those tests showed us where the cancer was hiding. We continued life as normal, as far as we could – driving up to Bay View for days and weekends by the lake, and driving back to Holland for more doctors’ appointments.

Finally, a PET scan!

When summer was over, we were growing anxious that Larry hadn’t started any treatment for his cancer recurrence. We decided to try again to get the much-needed PET scan. After some online searching, we found out that there was a clinical trial of a PSMA PET scan at the University of Michigan hospital. We took a deep breath, contacted the hospital, and asked if Larry qualified for the scan. Our insurance once again refused to cover it, so we were left with no option but to agree to pay the cost ourselves.

At the start of November, we drove to Ann Arbor, where Larry had the PSMA PET scan. Here he is, at the hospital, before the scan – still smiling behind the mask.

Larry's prostate cancer treatment continues

The scan results came back, showing that the cancer had spread to a lymph node. We made an appointment to see an oncologist at the University of Michigan.

Next steps

The next chapter in Larry’s treatment will include radiation at the University of Michigan Hospital. The treatment starts on Tuesday, January 19, and will be Monday-Friday; twenty sessions over four weeks. The hospital is 3 hours away from where we live, and Larry is planning to drive there (and back) every day for as long as it’s possible. We love long road-trips, right?

2020 was not the best of years. You know that already

2020 was a tough year for lots of people, us included. It left us with a ton of stress, a heap of worries, and more medical bills than we know what to do with. However, Larry’s still feeling well. He’s still writing handbell music, singing for online church services, and doing life as normal. We have each other, and friends to cheer us on, and we’re thankful.

Larry will be receiving treatment for the next six months – and by the end of this year, we should know if the treatment has been successful. We appreciate all love, prayers and positive thoughts as we go through this next chapter in our story.

January 17, 2019

Larry’s Recovering from Prostate Surgery

We enjoyed an amazing Christmas season, with lots of handbell duet performances. We also a chance to catch up with some of our family members from England. Sadly, the Michigan December was (dare we say it?) a little disappointing for our guests. They’d been expecting snow storms and a lake covered with ice. Instead, they were treated to temperatures only slightly colder than their home town in Cambridgeshire, and very little snow. Still, we all had a lovely Christmas together, and our house felt very quiet after they’d gone!

Something we didn’t talk about openly before Christmas was Larry’s diagnosis of prostate cancer, which came just before the start of the season. It was a medium-aggressive cancer, diagnosed by a PSA test followed by an MRI and a biopsy. It was definitely not the type of cancer that could be left alone or handled with “active surveillance”. Thankfully though, it was slow-growing enough that we could afford to take a few weeks to make a decision about treatment. We talked to medical professionals and read through lots of information. Finally we decided on a robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy at Holland Hospital, not far from where we live.

As it turned out, we were thankful for all the Christmas performances that gave us something else to focus on during December. There’s a lot to consider after a cancer diagnosis. We didn’t have time for too much sadness or downheartedness, because we had performances to give! We stayed focused, and were glad to have good doctors nearby to help us make the best decisions we could.

Recovering from surgery

We cleared our performance schedule for a while after Christmas, and Larry went into hospital for his surgery on January 10th. It was a tense day, but we knew he was in good hands. The surgery went well, and the all-important nerves were left intact, giving better prospects for full recovery afterwards. Larry was stable enough to be discharged from hospital the following day, and returned home with a catheter to deal with for a while.

Recovering from surgery is always an adventure. Larry has six incisions and is looking a bit bashed and bruised. Apart from that, his recovery has been going well. He’s now able to walk around and do many of his usual activities, but he’s not allowed to drive for a couple of weeks, and needs more naps than usual. We’ve been staying indoors, because it’s just easier with the catheter, and Larry has even managed to write some new handbell music!

Sadly, it’s too early for Larry to be able to play handbells. We’ve had to put all thoughts of rehearsing aside for a while until he’s stronger. With incisions, bruising, and that catheter, it’s better to wait a while than risk doing more damage!

Hopeful news

We had some happy news a few days ago. The lab results came back, and the lymph nodes showed no sign of cancer. This means that the cancer appears not to have spread outside the prostate gland. This is a huge relief to us, as it means Larry won’t need follow-up chemotherapy or any other treatment. There will be regular testing in the future, of course. However, for the time being he can focus on his recovery, and on regaining his strength. Then we can get back to rehearsing handbell duets!

Taking a break from performances for a while

The awkward thing about prostate cancer, and recovery, is that every case is different. It’s hard to predict how long Larry’s going to take to regain enough strength to start preparing for handbell performances again. For that reason, we’re taking a break for the first part of the year. Our next scheduled handbell performance will be at the Bay Area Spring Ring in Cupertino, California, the first weekend in May.

Cautious plans for the future

If Larry recovers well in the coming weeks, it’s possible that we’ll be able to open our calendar up for bookings in April – but we’d rather err on the side of caution and see how he progresses before we make too many plans, since we need to allow some time for rehearsing before we venture out to public performances again! If you’re interested in booking us for a handbell performance in the summer or later in the year, please contact us, and let us know what you have in mind.

In the meantime, thank you so much to everyone who has sent us good wishes for Larry’s recovery. It means a lot, and has helped to keep him in good spirits in the early days at home after surgery.