I really want to encourage men choosing Proton Beam Therapy for Prostate Cancer to become members of the Brotherhood of the Balloon. I joined just a couple of months ago and have found the information and stories presented in the monthly members newsletters to be incredibly helpful and extremely ‘level-headed’. It is so encouraging to hear about men who received this treatment more than ten years ago and whose quality of life remains truly dynamic.
Even if Proton Beam Therapy is just one of the options you are considering I urge you to read Bob Marckini’s “You Can Beat Prostate Cancer”
Reading about the rapidly increasing popularity of Proton Beam Therapy in recent Brotherhood of the Balloon newsletters reinforces just how lucky I have been in a) living so close to Mass General Hospital where one of the five US Proton Beam Centers is located, b) having to spend less than 2 months on the waiting list, and c) having doctors who discovered my cancer early enough to create a high probability of successful treatment.
So here’s an interesting question. My treatment is due to start on September 4th. At my treatment planning session I asked my radiation oncologist Dr Shipley about ‘the balloon’ – and, to my surprise he said, “We’re not using it anymore at MGH.” (Just as I was getting myself used to the idea:-) Does anyone else have information about this?? And how can I qualify for full membership in BOB if there’s no balloon?
Answers to the above gratefully accepted in ‘Comments’.
(Thank you Bob for your kind words about this blog)
The only reaquirement for membership in the Brotherhood of the Balloon is that you have committed to or have received proton therapy for prostate cancer.
I verified this with Bob Marckini over a year ago.
Fuller Jones
BOB ~ 2007
Hi there. I work for the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology. On our patient site, http://www.rtanswers.org, we are starting to include blogs from patients like you who are telling the story of radiation therapy treatments in their own words. Would you allow us to link to your story?
Hi Katherine,
I just checked out your site. I have to admit that I had not been aware of it before your message. Its a great informational site.
I would certainly be happy to have you include a link to my blog. Hopefully people will find it helpful, informative and supportive
Peter
Gday! I hope you don’t mind but I decided to post your website: https://dancingwithprostatecancer.wordpress.com/2008/08/15/proton-bob/ to my internet directory. I used, “Proton Bob | Dancing with Prostate Cancer” as your weblog headline. I hope this is acceptable with you. However, if you’d like me to change the title or
remove it entirely, e-mail me at damianberlin@gmail.
com. Thank you so much.
Hello mates, pleasant paragraph and fastidious urging commented at this place, I am truly
enjoying by these.
I am truly pleased to read this weblog posts which includes plenty of useful information,
thanks for providing such statistics.
Thanks a bunch for sharing this with all of us you actually know what you’re talking about! Bookmarked. Please additionally discuss with my website =). We will have a link alternate arrangement between us
Heeya i’m for the first time here. I found this
board and I to find It really useful & it helped me out much.
I am hoping to present something again and help others
like you helped me.
Hi, I would like to subscribe for this webpage to obtain latest updates, so where can i do iit plese help out.