Men, this is just common sense. You need to know what your
PSA score is as well as you do your golf score. In my case I had no of the
usual signs that something was going on with my prostate. In fact I felt good.
In fact, I would have never know, until it was too late, that there might be a
problem were it not for a simple, inexpensive, painless and harmless blood
test.
However, because the PSA score was above the 4.0 level and
because it was steadily going up I decided that I needed to have it checked
out. So after going over the test results with my health care co-coordinator I
that I wanted a referral to a Urologist to get my prostate checked out a little
further. He offered to fax it to the Urologist of my choice and I said,
"No, his office is just down the hall . . . I'll walk it down there
myself."
Now guys, I'm not going to lie about this either. The
prostate biopsy is very uncomfortable. If your religious minded like myself
you'll be praising the Lord for deadening medicines. This is a needle type
biopsy guided by an ultrasound probe. Do not look at it just relax and let the
Doc do his thing. With the addition of the deadening medicine it is a painless
but less than comfortable process. The Doctor will, as in my case, usually take
just 12 samples but depending on your PSA score may take twice that number. No
real after affect except some people, (I didn't) will have a little blood in
their urine for a day or two.
When the biopsy comes back from the pathologist the best
news you can hear is that
apparently you have a
benign enlargement of the prostate and you'll just need to continue to monitor
your PSA. However, in my case the biopsy came back that I had the most common
kind of prostate cancer (adenocarcinoma) and that about 30% of the prostate was involved.
Now I have cancer. Up until then I always assumed I could
have cancer but until it had a name it wasn't real yet. Now it had a name and
the really hard choices begin. Fortunately, prostate cancer does not in most cases demand an immediate
decision about treatment regimen. It is at this point where I suggest that you
do not get caught up in what I call the "Doctor Merry-Go-Round" but
do get the soft tissue scan and the bone scan done to help eliminate any spread
of the cancer. Prostate cancer usually spreads to the bone and/or the lung. This
is important because it will weight heavily on the course of treatments you
will need to decide upon.
Whatever you do don't be passive . . . take charge. You are
the command sergeant in this battle and you must take charge of the decision
making. Insist on the Doctors explaining clearly all the alternative available
to you. Do your own research. Get opinions from other specialists in the
field.
Fortunately for me I had a friend whose husband was a
Urologist in another city to whom I sent my test result. One of the best pieces
of advice he gave me was, "Remember, Urologist make their living doing
surgery and Radiologist make their living doing radiation treatment." In
short, each may be subconsciously biased toward their own approach to treatment
based on source of income.
In my case, once we had determined that it appeared the
cancer apparently had not spread my Urologist met with me and my wife for more
than an hour explaining all the various treatment options (2 surgery options
and several radiation options and a handful of other treatment options) and
offered to arrange for me to speak with Doctors in all of the treatment
specialties.
This is precisely what I did and I believe it is what
everyone should do. You are the Command Sergeant. Take all the information you
have gathered, assimilate as best you can, decide on a course of action and
then pursue it. Your health is your responsibility do not abdicate decisions
that relate to it to anyone. Most people are competent to do this.
Now I have to tell you that once friends and family discover
you have prostate cancer you'll get all sorts of recommendations about what
treatment options you should choose. What I have discovered is that whatever
seemed to work for someone was the best thing since sliced bread and ice tea.
What didn't work, even if it were the same thing, was a bad option. In my
research I found that the risk and failure/success rates were about the same
for all of the treatment option. However, in my mind doing nothing was not an
option. Do your research and decide on
what's best for you.
The robotic minimally invasive approach was certainly
appealing but was available at only one hospital in my area and the doctor I
wanted to use was still training, as were all the others here, on the
procedure. Several factors were involved
in my decision:
·
First, the hospital that offered the robotic
procedure was not my hospital of choice and I did not wish to travel to Houston . I wanted to make
it easy on my wife and children since the level of care would not be
significantly different at M.D. Anderson given my diagnosis;
·
Second, the doctors, including my choice of
doctor, were still training on the procedure;
·
Third, the procedure was far more expensive than
the open wound procedure;
·
Fourth, my chosen Doctor has done many hundreds
if not thousands of these open wound procedures and is considered by his
colleagues as among the best in the country.
·
Fifth, my chosen Doctor was on staff at my
hospital of choice and was happy to do it where I wanted.
·
Sixth, and this may seem odd but the chaplain at
my chosen hospital has been a friend for many years.
Now I am not suggesting this
should be your thought process. I offer it simply to say you need to have a
thought process that leads to a decision as to who, how and where to treat you
prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer is the number one
killer of men and more men will die from it than women will die from breast
cancer. I do not begrudge the ladies one cent of the funding that goes into
breast cancer research. I do think that something needs to be done to bring more
attention to the risk men face with prostate cancer and the need for greater
funding for research. This is America
people . . . WE CAN DO BETTER!
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