Post by vfxer on Jun 19, 2014 21:00:31 GMT -8
On June 20, 2013 I was sitting in my urologist office to get the results of a Prostate Biopsy that was taken the week before. My life would chance forever. You are never ready to hear the word even if knew that at some point in my life I would hear them. I had cancer, Prostate Cancer.
The reason I say I knew I would hear those words is that my mother had Breast Cancer and my father died of cancer at the base of the tongue that spread. If you ask a doctor if cancer runs in families they will tell you “No”, BUT if you tell them someone in your family had cancer then they will make sure they give you more test to make sure you don’t.
I said that my life changed forever after hearing that I had Prostate Cancer. For one thing, from that day forward I would never hate getting a DRE done, I still don’t like them but I accept it that it is now a fact of life for me.
To me it’s funny that one of the worst things about having Prostate Cancer is not the DRE’s, not the Biopsy but hearing those words “Cancer”.
My trip down the PC road actually started a few years back. The doctor I had at the time started to test my PSA back when I was around 55 but I really didn’t know or at the time I didn’t care. To me it was just a test he was doing. He started doing yearly DRE when I was about 60. At one point my PSA was 5.6 but it turns out that it may have been a false reading due to a infection, injury or it could have been that at the time I was have a bout of diverticulosis. The last two PSA I had done with him were between 3.9 and 4.1. He wasn’t worried about it.
Then a big change came. The company I worked for, for 19 years decided they didn’t need me anymore. I only had insurance for four more months. During this time I moved from the Bay Area in Northern California to Las Vegas were we had just bought a home. My new doctor decided after doing two PSA test that it might be time for me to see a Urologist since my PSA was up to 5.6, After seeing the Urologist one time he decided that just to make sure lets do a biopsy. I had no problem with that. I didn’t think a biopsy could be that bad. Right! Anyone that has had a biopsy knows I was in for a big surprise. They were going to do 12 samples. At this point I have to ask why does the Urologist have to have such a good looking nurse. That doesn’t help.
Now I have to say that I was “lucky” during my biopsy. I had a leg cramp. The nurse who was there saw it first and then the doctor. They ask if I was alright and I told them I had a leg cramp and the nurse start rubbing my leg and the doctor asked if I wanted to stop for I while. I said “hell no. It’s keeping my mind off what you’re doing back there”. Well after the doctor pick himself off the floor after he started laughing he finished what he was doing.
Waiting a week for the results wasn’t the easiest but little did I know that my life was going to change. Now I had about a 20 mile drive to get home. I refused to call my wife so I had a lot of thinking to do, or over thinking. Now about 1 mile before I get home I have to pass a cemetery. The worst thing about passing it at the time I did was that there was a service going on right near the fence. Of course I just got news that I had cancer so what do I think, soon that will be me. At that point I got mad at myself and said no way am I going to start thinking like that. So since then I have tried to keep a positive about it.
Since then I have been on Active Surveillance waiting for things to change. I have had to change doctors again due to no insurance and now have to use the VA for my health care. So far mostly it isn’t that bad except the Urologist I have I’m not really happy with. I was happy with him until I found out that he is not telling the truth on his reports. He claims he has done a DRE on me but he never has. Not that I really want to have one but it seems it might be a good idea for him to do at least one. It appears that the VA doesn’t start looking into Prostate Cancer until you have PSA over 4.0. It turns out that since going to the VA, my PSA has been down to 3.5 to 3.9.
Now for any guy that is scared to have Prostate Biopsy then I would suggest that if they can get a Thyroid Biopsy first. After that a Prostate Biopsy is a piece of cake. If I have to choose between the two, I’m dropping my pants.
I hope to see a surgeon to have my Thyroid out in the next few months and then after the first of the year when I get to go back to my old doctors I am going to request that my Prostate be sent packing and at that time I’m going to talk to the VA about the doctor not being truthful. For the last year there is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of my Prostate Cancer. After all the research I have done in the last year, after reading all the posting on some groups on Facebook and putting everything together, I think I am now ready to have it removed.
A few lessons I have learned so far is that you can’t do too much research BUT you need to be careful of the advice you take. You can find so much information both good and bad that you have to it look over and figure out what is really or what is fake. I personally will only accept information that is from a well know site/source over one that just popped up. One of the best places I have found that I can get some of the best information is on some groups on Facebook where you actually get information from people who are also faced with Prostate Cancer. Now I have to assume that the people doing the posting are real and truthful but over the past year I have seen fakes and people with their own agenda and how others on these groups call them out.
Another lesson I have learned is that you can’t over think what’s happening. Listen to your doctors carefully, take advice from your friends (both real and online), and your family and then do what is best for you.
The reason I say I knew I would hear those words is that my mother had Breast Cancer and my father died of cancer at the base of the tongue that spread. If you ask a doctor if cancer runs in families they will tell you “No”, BUT if you tell them someone in your family had cancer then they will make sure they give you more test to make sure you don’t.
I said that my life changed forever after hearing that I had Prostate Cancer. For one thing, from that day forward I would never hate getting a DRE done, I still don’t like them but I accept it that it is now a fact of life for me.
To me it’s funny that one of the worst things about having Prostate Cancer is not the DRE’s, not the Biopsy but hearing those words “Cancer”.
My trip down the PC road actually started a few years back. The doctor I had at the time started to test my PSA back when I was around 55 but I really didn’t know or at the time I didn’t care. To me it was just a test he was doing. He started doing yearly DRE when I was about 60. At one point my PSA was 5.6 but it turns out that it may have been a false reading due to a infection, injury or it could have been that at the time I was have a bout of diverticulosis. The last two PSA I had done with him were between 3.9 and 4.1. He wasn’t worried about it.
Then a big change came. The company I worked for, for 19 years decided they didn’t need me anymore. I only had insurance for four more months. During this time I moved from the Bay Area in Northern California to Las Vegas were we had just bought a home. My new doctor decided after doing two PSA test that it might be time for me to see a Urologist since my PSA was up to 5.6, After seeing the Urologist one time he decided that just to make sure lets do a biopsy. I had no problem with that. I didn’t think a biopsy could be that bad. Right! Anyone that has had a biopsy knows I was in for a big surprise. They were going to do 12 samples. At this point I have to ask why does the Urologist have to have such a good looking nurse. That doesn’t help.
Now I have to say that I was “lucky” during my biopsy. I had a leg cramp. The nurse who was there saw it first and then the doctor. They ask if I was alright and I told them I had a leg cramp and the nurse start rubbing my leg and the doctor asked if I wanted to stop for I while. I said “hell no. It’s keeping my mind off what you’re doing back there”. Well after the doctor pick himself off the floor after he started laughing he finished what he was doing.
Waiting a week for the results wasn’t the easiest but little did I know that my life was going to change. Now I had about a 20 mile drive to get home. I refused to call my wife so I had a lot of thinking to do, or over thinking. Now about 1 mile before I get home I have to pass a cemetery. The worst thing about passing it at the time I did was that there was a service going on right near the fence. Of course I just got news that I had cancer so what do I think, soon that will be me. At that point I got mad at myself and said no way am I going to start thinking like that. So since then I have tried to keep a positive about it.
Since then I have been on Active Surveillance waiting for things to change. I have had to change doctors again due to no insurance and now have to use the VA for my health care. So far mostly it isn’t that bad except the Urologist I have I’m not really happy with. I was happy with him until I found out that he is not telling the truth on his reports. He claims he has done a DRE on me but he never has. Not that I really want to have one but it seems it might be a good idea for him to do at least one. It appears that the VA doesn’t start looking into Prostate Cancer until you have PSA over 4.0. It turns out that since going to the VA, my PSA has been down to 3.5 to 3.9.
Now for any guy that is scared to have Prostate Biopsy then I would suggest that if they can get a Thyroid Biopsy first. After that a Prostate Biopsy is a piece of cake. If I have to choose between the two, I’m dropping my pants.
I hope to see a surgeon to have my Thyroid out in the next few months and then after the first of the year when I get to go back to my old doctors I am going to request that my Prostate be sent packing and at that time I’m going to talk to the VA about the doctor not being truthful. For the last year there is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of my Prostate Cancer. After all the research I have done in the last year, after reading all the posting on some groups on Facebook and putting everything together, I think I am now ready to have it removed.
A few lessons I have learned so far is that you can’t do too much research BUT you need to be careful of the advice you take. You can find so much information both good and bad that you have to it look over and figure out what is really or what is fake. I personally will only accept information that is from a well know site/source over one that just popped up. One of the best places I have found that I can get some of the best information is on some groups on Facebook where you actually get information from people who are also faced with Prostate Cancer. Now I have to assume that the people doing the posting are real and truthful but over the past year I have seen fakes and people with their own agenda and how others on these groups call them out.
Another lesson I have learned is that you can’t over think what’s happening. Listen to your doctors carefully, take advice from your friends (both real and online), and your family and then do what is best for you.
