Stage 4 Cancer: Quality of Life and End of Life

Quality of Life most often comes to mind in discussions regarding human existence. It is often used when someone is near the end of the journey. I think about it everyday, although I am not sure how long my diagnosis with an aggressive form of prostate cancer will keep me here. I am on a mission to keep at least this end game on a qualitative level. The current go-to treatment is periodic Lupron injections. It is no day at the beach. My former oncologist is fond of saying that men diagnosed with prostrate cancer tend to die of something else. I think he may not have had an anti-androgen experience. I am not quite sure what he means. Do we all get hit by buses while experiencing a crying jag? My cancer has bought real estate in other parts of my body which has introduced me to radiation and other new adventures in metastastic stage 4 cancer. I celebrated my senior prom in 2010 at The Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street when I turned 62. It was a memorable experience—a cabaret show. I sang my heart out. It is now After the Prom, so to speak, when I am safely ensconced anew in Philadelphia where I was born. Living with incurable prostate cancer hasn’t suppressed the incurable teenager within me--Sometimes not so within. I can now look back on the hormonal adventures which I experienced in many places on two continents. If somewhat lacking in quality, it was a very quantitative life. There are still a couple of things I want to do~ Now! On to the quality … I spent a few years in Italy 45 years ago. It was life enhancing and growth inducing.

I want to go back while I am still capable of experiencing the beauty. I want to visit my relatives and experience the best of me. However, that may not be in my cards, but I do want to set up and organize the end of my life properly.

Giovanni Vitacolonna

Philadelphia PA 19107