I saw your message to me on my email and just decided to reply hear.
This is pretty exciting isn't it? I hope it just catches fire.

I "know" the rest of the members here, either have actually met them
or emailed or spoken briefly by phone.

My now 59 year old husband finsished his proton treatment in Loma
Linda two weeks short of a year ago. At diagnosis PSA was 5.9, by the
time he started treatment a couple of months later it was down to
4.9. Stage T1c, Gleason 3+3 with 2/12 cores positive. Gregg was
diagnosed with non-invasive bladder cancer just 15 months prior to
his prostate cancer diagnosis.

We took surgery off the table really early on, especially when we
found out that the succes rate for surgery is no better than anything
else.
We were convinced that more normal tissue would be spared with
protons and were especially concerned with sparing Gregg's bladder as
much as possible.

We are Kaiser members. Kaiser will not pay for protons. We took the
appeal process all the way to the agency within the state of CA which
oversees HMO's. The state upheld Kaiser's denial. We currently have a
lawyer who is trying to get Kaiser to reimburse us. We are not
holding our breath.

So, that's our story in a nutshell.

Very nice to meet you and look forward to talking to you more.

Laurel