A Personal Journey with Cancer

As I learned more about the various treatments available, armed with the facts about my type of prostate cancer, it became clear that my entire prostate would have to come out. The cancer was spread through the gland, not a single lump that might be removed by a partial prostatectomy. Since the kind of cancer was fairly aggressive, metastasis was the next concern. Scans showed that the cancer was still contained within the prostate.

 

While the concerns associated with a radical prostatectomy are many, they pale in certain ways compared to the idea of the cancer metastasizing to other organs (bladder, etc.) and bones. No one could give me a prediction about how long it might be before such spreading would occur. The options were to wait and see how the cancer would progress (more biopsies and scans), remove the prostate, or try radiation on the sections of the prostate where the cancer was known to exist (more biopsies and scans to better pinpoint those locations). The radiation approach wasn’t acceptable to me because it might not get all the cancer and would leave scar tissues that might decrease the success of a radical prostatectomy that I might have to have eventually anyway. The “wait-and-see” option wasn’t good for me because I didn’t want to risk the cancer metastasizing to other parts of my body and creating a much more complicated treatment landscape (chemotherapy, etc.). I have enjoyed good physical health most of my life. I had stitches from a dog bite as a kid. Had my tonsils out when they were still doing that for what we now know is a virus that kids can usually get over. I had malaria several times when I lived in West Africa, working for the Peace Corps. But otherwise, besides being overweight for a few years in my 30’s, I’ve been pretty fit. The choice between losing the prostate and being most likely free of cancer, at least for the foreseeable future, versus risking more complicated cancers that could be lethal, for me, came down to my desire to live longer. The odds of my living a normal length of time are better with the prostatectomy.

I have kids. I want to see them grow to adults. If they choose to have kids, then I want the chance of being a grandparent. The prostatectomy, right now, gives me a better probability than waiting, risking the cancer’s spreading. I don’t want to go through living with a catheter for a couple of weeks. I don’t want to face incontinence and impotency, even though I know with time and proper rehab I can get over the worst of those side effects. I don’t want to be in a hospital, being cut up. I don’t want to have to drive in Boston traffic to get this done. But to see my boys grow, I would gladly go through a lot more. So, off I go….

 

Even with my prostate enlarged now, I’m only going to lose about 8 ounces. And it’s not like a menu, where I could add some liposuction for a few hundred more bucks. I thought about taking a marker with me, and writing “Liposuction at will” on my chest, but Todd advised against it; sort of like not making bomb jokes at the airport. He works in a hospital, so I trust him on this one, but maybe global warming is sucking the humor out of us at some level….

 

Steve 

 

Trackbacks

Trackback: http://www.goddard.edu/blog/trackback_receive.php/id/1531