 And welcome to think deco-wise program, don't just age, engage, where we look at the issues of aging from an internal point of view. And for an external point of view too, what are some of the changes of thinking that will empower you to have a wonderful extraordinary adulthood? And what are some of the resources that are available to have an extraordinary adulthood? Men six out of 10 will have prostate cancer in America. Six out of 10. So if you see 10 guys around and you don't have it, you're one of four. But what if you do? What are your options? And have you thought of this option? I wanna introduce you to a very important person in my life. His name happens to be Randy Grimm. Same as mine, Larry Grimm. I'm your host and I'm so delighted to do that from Hawaii. Randy, welcome to this program. And I have to tell you, Randy, one of the happiest days of my life was when you came back and said, I no longer have prostate cancer. I was so elated and thrilled, as I'm sure you were. Yeah, thank you. It was a pretty good response when I got that. So Randy, tell us a little bit, tell the viewers a little bit about yourself where you are at this time in your life, what's going on for you. And then I'm gonna just turn the story over to you because you've got a well-planned out story to relate to us about your experience with prostate cancer. Okay, well, just in summary, I live in Carlsbad, California, which is a community on the beach about 30 miles north of downtown San Diego. I've lived here since 1972. I grew up in Kansas City with you and our other two siblings and spent 37 years in the private sector in marketing and advertising after going to undergraduate and graduate school. And then for the last 17 years, I've been the video production unit for the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. So, and I still do that. I still do projects for them. But anyway, that's pretty much it. We have two daughters. One daughter here lives here 10 minutes from us, Kimberly, and she's a nurse practitioner in the intensive care unit at the local hospital. And then we have another daughter who lives in Denver, who's an executive for an international fitness firm. We have two great, two grandsons. One is 14, one is coming up 16. They live here. And then another smaller one that's going to be five in July in Denver. Yeah, great. And I've known them. And my daughters, your nieces, Aaron and Amanda, are having a great time associating with Tray and the little baby Tray and with Aaron and Tiffany there in Denver. It's such a great relationship. So, Randy, this past Sunday was sibling day. Oh, really? Another, I guess. Yeah, I guess that's it. Was that created by Hallmark too? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So I was excited to be able to have you, my sibling, on camera today and on the program. By the way, viewers, I want you to know for sure that he is my older brother in spite of the fact that he looks younger than I am. Hardly, yeah. So, Randy, you had this incredible experience. I mean, as a chaplain in my life and my work, working with people in churches and working with people in long-term care, working with people in hospice care, writing a book, Don't Just Age and Gauge out of that. I've been close to death and dying for many years now. And I know what it can do to people. I know how it can shift your whole understanding. You have come up close to the potential with a cancer diagnosis. And how'd you manage that? And how did it work for you? Well, fortunately, at the age of 75 in 2020, I'd lived a life that was pretty much, everything was going well. I was very active. I would do anything I wanted, surf, bike, run, walk, travel, fly, whatever I wanted, and I had no problem. The only thing I did for my health was have an annual physical. And in 2012, right after I became 60, why my annual physical started checking the PSA level for my prostate. And it was fairly low then. It was like about 3.2 in 2012. And anything lower than four is good, is okay. But in the coming years, why it started to gradually increase, every year I would go in after the lab results were in and my primary care physician would do a digital rectal exam which is unpleasant but necessary to see if there were any lesions or anything on the prostate. And while my prostate was enlarging, it was still smooth. In 2019 though, the level had reached a point of 7.1, which is well above the 4.0. And that was the peak of COVID and my time came for my annual physical and I was kind of pondering, well, do I really need to do it this year? Because it's a hassle to go in with COVID and all of that stuff to go through the hoops. But I thought, well, no, I'll go ahead and do it. So I went in and I got my blood drawn and I got a call on Friday, the, let's see, it was Friday, the 10th of July in 2020 for my primary care physician and said, hey, everything looks good on your lab results except for one thing, your prostate has jumped from 7.1 to 8.7. And he said, I want you to, I've already scheduled an MRI for you on Monday morning. So he didn't even want me to come in and do an exam. He said, this is serious enough, we have to check it out. I went into a local imaging center, got the MRI done. The next day, I got the results and they said it's a, they judge it by called a Pyrad on a five point scale. And it was a Pyrad of three and they said a three out of five. Three indicates probable cancer. So they said what we would strongly recommend is that you find a urologist and schedule a biopsy. So I was kind of shocked, obviously, but when you face the point when you've been healthy all your life and at age 75 you hear there were cancer, you have pretty much two options. You can get sad and oh gosh, what am I gonna do? And why is this happening to me? That's not me. I got mad and I said, this isn't gonna take me. I know there's options. And fortunately a neighbor across the street in 2012 had was diagnosed with prostate cancer and he went to Loma Linda up in Riverside County for proton therapy treatment. And he was up there for like 28 days, 30 days. He had 30 treatments. He came back and since then has been cancer-free. And so I knew about it. So I immediately took steps to contact them. At the same time, I got a hold of a urologist and scheduled my biopsy. So I had a needle biopsy on August 5th, less than a month after I'd been notified of the cancer or of the PSA problem. What they do is they go in through the back door, so to speak and take 12 different needle samples from your prostate, all areas of your prostate, both lobes to see if it's present and to what degree. Results came back from that, that seven out of 12 of the samples were positive for cancer. So I knew for sure that I had it then. What I did immediately after that, well, then the urologist said, what we need to do is we need to stage it. We need to find out if it's metastasized outside of your prostate. And if so, we need to find out where it's gone. Most usually it goes to the bones or to the lymph nodes. So he scheduled a bone, a nuclear bone scan soon thereafter on the 14th a week later. And I had that and fortunately it was negative. So they typed me or I mean, you stage me at stage 2A, which is the first part of the second stage. The only reason it wasn't more was because there was no indication of being outside the prostate, but the reason it was two is because it was on the peripheral edges of the prostate. I see, yeah, I understand that the real concern is does it jump over the fence? I think you use that term and go into other glands that are close by. Lymph notar bones is where it usually goes into your bone. Lymph notar bones, that's good clarification, thank you. So I, at that point in time, I was proactive to go and talk to Loma Linda. I called Loma Linda and I sent them all of my information. The admissions nurse at Loma Linda suggested contacting California protons, which is located right here 20 minutes away from my home. And the reason they said to check it out is because they had the more advanced technology of proton therapy called pencil beam. Loma Linda has what they call scatter beam. So I went there, but they also said the other advantage of California protons is that the doctor that started proton therapy when they first built the proton generator in 2002 at Loma Linda was Dr. Carl Rossi. And Dr. Carl Rossi had been hired at California protons when they opened. And he is in essence the leading doctor, the leading oncologist for treating prostate cancer with proton therapy in the world. And he has treated to date more than 20 or more than 12,000 patients for prostate cancer with proton therapy with a success rate of 80 to 90%, which equals what they call the gold standard, which is taking the whole thing out, which prostate ectomy, which has all sorts of side effects and negative after effects. So one of the questions from viewers was what is the rate of return for proton therapy patients? And it sounds like it's close to zero. Correct. That's great, Randy. They can't guarantee that. To have that within 20 minutes. Within what? To have that within 20 minutes of your home. Oh yes. People. I'm wonderful. This center and the technology is so dramatic and so effective that people come and pay to stay here for the, it's 28 treatments and they pay to stay here for 28 days in a motel or whatever. So yeah, luckily it was right here in our backyard. I then talked to my urologist. My urologist said, yeah, you've got it. And he gave me about three or four options, one of which was called CyberKnife. And he said, we have a group that does that. I asked him, I said, what about proton therapy? And he said, oh yeah, there's that too, but it takes 28 days and insurance doesn't pay for it. Well, insurance does pay for it if you got Medicare. So he was really in not lying, but he wasn't being totally forthcoming for you. Correct. And over time I've talked to other patients and they've had the same thing happen with their urologists throughout the country. Yeah, we find this periodically in specialized medicine where they want you to have their very way of doing it because they want to get paid, of course. Exactly. And I don't blame them, but that really cuts, that really says that your initial diagnosis and the person who gives it to you is not necessarily going to come up with a variety of alternative healing processes. You have to ferret those out yourself. Right. And that's one of the reasons I'm so grateful you're doing this, Randy, with me, because it can be great information for people who otherwise would not receive this insight and this knowledge. Go ahead. Yeah, what I would recommend, Loma Linda also recommended a book by a man named Robert Marchini. And they sent me a free copy of it. It's called You Can Be Prostate Cancer and You Don't Need Surgery to Do It. You can get it on Amazon.com. If any of your viewers are diagnosed with prostate cancer, the first thing I would recommend is get on Amazon, order that book, and read it cover to cover when you get it. Because what Marchini does, Marchini's not a doctor. He's a prostate cancer patient. And when he was informed that he had it, he went into months of research on options, on every single option, radiation, cyber knife, proton therapy, et cetera. And he discovered Loma Linda as an option and selected it in his evaluations. He talked to patients who had selected each and every one of these options and talked to them about what they experienced with side effects, with after effects, with success rate. And there was no question that proton therapy is the way to go if you qualify. So the other question is, proton therapy proven yet? His book wouldn't be a testimonial to yes, it's proven as primary therapy among therapies. Well, here's the thing about proton therapy. It was started, as I said, initially at Loma Linda. And they pioneered the establishment of it. Proton therapy is used to treat many types of cancers, not just prostate. They treat bone cancer, they treat breast cancer, brain cancer, colon cancer, you name it. I mean, on the website that I'm gonna refer you to later, you'll see the wide array. The proton therapy has been a primary option for more than 20 years now. And as I said, there are 34 different proton treatment centers throughout the U.S. And Mayo has a couple of them. And MD Anderson has some. So your major hospitals and your major medical centers have them from the East Coast to the Midwest to the West Coast. California protons in Loma Linda is the only one on the West Coast in Southern California. And then there's one in Washington. I see, so there's such a variety available. And that's very good to know because we want, you might wanna, those who are viewing this might wanna look for a therapy place that's closer to them, that's proton therapy. But South Carolina, San Diego area is the premier in the service that you would recommend. Well, California protons is premier because of Dr. Rossi. Yeah, the originator of the guy who helped me. He has such experience and success. Now, I might address the fact that with standard radiation, why, and we have a slide for standard radiation, the radiation enters the area where the tumor is, but it goes clear through it. It hits the good organs, it hits the tumor and it hits the other side as well. So there's a lot of risk of damage to good organs and there's a lot of risk of side effects and after effects with pencil beam radiation, which is what California protons and the newer proton centers provide. It's like a laser printer. It's literally the beam is a pencil thin beam that is controlled, pardon me, by the computer and it paints only the tumor and it stops at the tumor. Stops at the tumor, that's phenomenal. It stops at the tumor, it does not go through. So regardless of what the shape of your tumor is, it will laser it, so to speak, with the proton beam, with protons going like 150,000 miles an hour. Wow, wow. So to move on ahead, I started the treatments. My first treatment was on, let's see, the 10th of November, 2020. It was a schedule of 28 treatments and the process, you have to go every day. During weekdays, you're off on the weekends. The process is so simple. It takes longer to drive there and back than it does to get the treatment. My gosh. Basically, you enter the building, you enter the treatment room, you change into your gown. When you enter the treatment room, the first thing you see is a big screen with your name and your date of birth and that's the first thing they ask you. What's your name and date of birth? Because that confirms that they've got your computer program up there. You give them that and then the treatment area itself looks like a Star Wars setting with a huge gantry that rotates 360 degrees if needed. They place you on the treatment bed, which is the arm is extended out so you can get on it and then they electronically move you into position. The table is then moved into position in front of the, I call it just a box, which serves two purposes. The device that delivers the beam looks like a big box basically, but through it come two things. Number one, it first does a rotation around your body to provide the team with a CT scan. That's to make sure that they've got your body positioned in the right place, in the right position for the computer beam to hit the precise areas of your tumor. So the box basically, as I said, rotates, but then when you're in position, it makes kind of a humming sound, which are the electromagnets lining up the beam and then it goes silent and for 30 seconds after that, that's when the beam is being administered. So the whole process for each treatment takes no more than 10 minutes and it's totally painless, non-invasive. No side effects. I continued to ride my bike every day. I continued to do everything I do. I just couldn't eat some of the things that I normally eat because the dietician at California Protons recommends the foods that are conducive for non-cancerous growth. And so all my five major food groups of Burger, Shakes, Fries, Beer and Twinkies were off the record. But you eat a lot of greens, you eat a lot of nuts, you eat a lot of fiber. So 28 days of go in, lie down, and oddly enough, one of the fun things is when you go in, they ask you, they have a tremendous stereo system in the treatment room and they will play any kind of music you want. They have a subscription to iTunes. And so every day, the major decision I had going in other than remembering my name and birth date was what song or what artist I wanted to hear. So I had them play a different artist or different song every one of the 28 treatments. And at the last treatment, I knew what I wanted. So I saved it till last. The last song that I had them play was Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees. Terrific, terrific. A good ending. Okay, to my viewers, to my viewers, I want to say Randy is a really lovable guy and he wins the affection of people that he works with and that care for him. Do you want to say, we got three minutes left and I know you want to say something about that wonderful team you experienced. Yes, the team was incredible. After your final treatment, they hold a traditional bell ringing ceremony. And here you can see myself and my wife and Dr. Rossi. And actually I had my team come out on another right before this and ring the bell because I told them, hey, you're the guys that did it. All I did was show up and lie still. So they were really the heroes. To wrap it up for a wealth of information on proton therapy and what cap, what I call a cap, California protons can provide, be sure to visit their website which is CaliforniaProtons.com, CaliforniaProtonsAllOneWord.com. And then there's another site too, if you're diagnosed, which is an international site called the Bob, Brotherhood of the Balloon. And the site there is protonbob.com. And the meaning of Bob, Brotherhood of the Balloon is that in some cases they inflate a balloon before each treatment. Up your rear end to separate the rectum from the prostate so it can enable more precise targeting. I didn't have to have that because I had a gel put in that lasted the entire time. Oh, that's good. So to wrap it up, I would say, if you're diagnosed with it, don't panic, take action and be your own advocate because nobody else is gonna advocate for you. Excellent. Well, for those of you who look in with me for this program, I look forward to seeing you two weeks from now. If you're getting up at night, a lot to urinate and things just don't feel like they're functioning the way they used to, make sure you get your PSA tested, make sure you know what's going on with your prostate, it's possibly probably enlarged and then move along with this information that Randy has given to you. Thanks, Randy. It's been so great to appear together. The brother's grim here and to, and to really celebrate your life and your ongoing life, which I'm so grateful is yours. Oh, thank you. And so to you, our viewers, aloha, see you in two weeks and I look forward to that time with you. Come join me again there. Bye-bye. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechawaii.com. Mahalo.