|
Untitled Document
|
| Message
Board |
| |
|
|
| Author: chaosmanor |
| Message Title: What I did over my Winter Vacation (very OT) |
| Message #: 7816 |
| Post Date: 1/26/2010 6:42:38 PM |
| |
Hey, folks!
I'm not one to talk much about my personal travails, but I think I need to let this group know that I've not been posting for a reason, not just because I'm lazy. Oh, I am lazy, but that's another issue ;-) Now that I am past the hard part, I'm a lot more willing to talk, especially if it helps someone else down-the-line.
Bottom line: I am now officially a prostate cancer survivor: 15 days and counting :-) I told very few people about my cancer before the operation, and most of them were family, of course. I was as active as I could maintain for most of last year, but the past month or two has been hectic, on several levels. I am finally up to sitting at the computer for longer stretches than, say, five minutes.
Prostate cancer survival rates are quite good, and as they had caught mine early, the chances of things going sour were quite low. Thus, I didn't want to worry people needlessly, and any sympathy or "pity" to spare should go to folks who really can use it: Haiti is a good place to start.
As far as my surgeon and his team can tell from their first look at my
now-missing organ, the cancer tumor, while larger than any they could remember ever seeing before, had not spread. Lifelong monitoring will, of course, be part of my life, but it should be for all men. A very small price to pay, IMHO.
Which brings me to the salient point of this! All you men out there over 40, if you have not had a PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) blood test, GET ONE!! If you are of African descent, you should get one maybe even at 35, as you are even more prone to prostate cancer. If you ask your doctor to have one done, and s/he demures, push harder or change doctors. I have never been more serious in my life.
It is very unlikely that any man will have prostate cancer at that young of an age, but an early PSA test gives you and your doctor a baseline for comparison to tests taken over the ensuing years. I got lucky: had a new Primary Care Physician who made a point of adding the PSA test to my first blood panel for him, and then had me take another a couple of weeks later, just to confirm (or question, if need be) the first one. After that, there was a lot of stuff that I won't bore you with, but if anyone has any questions, feel free to e-mail me.
Anyway, that's it. My apologies for OTing this Group, but I count you amongst my friends, and if even one of you gains a decade or two, or helps someone else do the same, I think it was worth taking up a little bandwidth ;-) Hope you agree.
Now to see if I can catch up on all the posts over the past few months :-o
Jim Carleton, the other half of chaosmanor |
| |
The number of times this page has been viewed is: |
|
|
|
