The Devil You Know…

My wife, Carol, and I have a long list of diseases and conditions between us. In most cases we have a diagnosis, explanation, and some sort of treatment that helps manage whatever it is. Not the way we prefer life, but a reality we can, and do, live with it pretty well.

 

So when Carol recently came down with something really nasty—headaches, earaches, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, no appetite, and extreme weakness—we were off to the doctor for a diagnosis and a time-tested treatment. It was not to be. 

After numerous tests at two medical clinics and a hospital there was general agreement about what wasn’t the cause. Her heart, lungs, liver, and other organs were fine. Good. Her condition was caused by a virus (we had our flu shots), probably. Adult Viral Syndrome was the consensus; maybe related to the newest flu strains. The treatment was unanimous—“Go home and take it easy and in a while you’ll feel better.” Kind of a helpless feeling. No pills, no procedures, no miracle injection. Just wait. Hard to do. 

I discovered that not knowing what to do and not knowing when she would get better, or worse, was difficult for both of us. I hovered a lot, made sure she had water and a warm blanket, and mostly was a useless onlooker. Eventually, after more than five weeks, she is getting better. 

Will it (whatever it is) come back again? Could it be worse? What can we do to prevent it? I guess I’ll need to learn more tolerance for the unknown. But I’ll always feel more comfortable with the diseases I know than those mysterious ailments that can come and go.

axman

I am Past My “Use By…” Date and then Some!

Surprise, surprise, I’m headed for another year.

Maybe I will accomplish something great this year…write the great American novel, make congress productive, or find a cure for procrastination. More likely, however, I will continue to have fun and enjoy every day.

Over the ten years I have lived with cancer I have tried, and mostly succeeded, to be active, positive, and moderately productive. I have written or co-written three cancer related books. The research and writing was actually a lot of fun and also challenging. My quite modest expectations of fame and fortune proved not to be nearly modest enough. I have no regrets. I’d probably do it again. And I just might.

Now for a moment of unabashed self-promotion. Two of the books are in print and available, really (the third is not yet published). Real Men Get Prostate Cancer Too and Cancer Clinical Trials can be found at Amazon and other fine book sellers. My next book will have a much catchier and more profitable title—something like, 50 Shades of Old and Grey, or Get Rich with Clinical Trials, or A Cure for Cancer—Guaranteed! Sound OK to you?

I sometimes wonder why I seem to be surviving quite well while others with the same diagnosis and prognosis I have, aren't. I’m not complaining about surviving, but there is that nagging question of “why me?” I know life is unpredictable and that’s probably for the best.

In 2014 I hope to do better at finding my glasses, phone, keys, and that half-full coffee cup. So it’s on, on‑‑to new adventures in traveling, spending quality time with family and friends, wandering aimlessly around the Arizona desert, gardening (mini adventure), and taking a nap whenever I want to.

The very best of everything in 2014 and may the cures be with you!

axman

Real Men Get Prostate Cancer Too, Second Edition is now available

Easy Access from my Blog!

Have prostate cancer? Know someone who has recently been diagnosed? Or maybe they’ve been battling it for five or ten years? Share this with them by email, liking, sharing, etc. Prostate cancer (after skin cancer) is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men. More than two million American men are living with prostate cancer--and 12 million worldwide.

Many survivors, including me, have benefited from  advances that have been made in diagnosing and treating prostate cancer in the years since I published the first edition of Real Men Get Prostate Cancer Too in 2008. So it was time to update the state of prostate cancer and my survival story. And I even included some new cartoons!

axman

Prostate Cancer has gone to the Dogs

Maybe they’ll take a bite out of cancer...

We all know that dogs can track the lost and detect drugs at airports and border crossings. Now they have been trained to detect prostate cancer by identifying a specific scent in male urine (which, I’m told, is NOT in the male at the time of diagnosis). This has nothing to do with the dogs in your life that have been unrepentant crotch sniffers.

There are a number of articles and blogs explaining the research and telling you everything except just what exactly it is the dogs are detecting. Here are two links that pretty much sum up the French study.

Sniffing Out Cancer or Study Finds Dogs Can Detect Prostate Cancer will give you more details or maybe just wagging tails.

I’ll bet you really want to know if you’ll encounter a dog the next time you visit your oncologist. Probably not, but stranger things have happened. The dogs in the study were 95% accurate – much better than the reported 85% accuracy of the tried and true PSA. Maybe some combination of blood samples and urine sniffing will turn out to be 99% accurate!

The value of this study is probably in the fact that there is something that can be detected in urine and clever scientists will probably find another, less canine, way to detect it. Sorry Rover, sit, stay, good boy.

For most of us who already have prostate cancer this potential breakthrough won’t do much, but it just might help our sons and grandsons. We’ll see.


axman

Setting a GOOD Example in those Declining Years

Or not… Since I published my book I have met with a dozen or so small groups of men and their wives to discuss prostate cancer, their survival, my survival, and of course my book. The groups are generally small (often really small) and the talk is very interactive – with others asking questions and making comments as I proceed. It’s all very calm and relaxed.

More often than not the questions sound like, “What should I do?” “What’s the best treatment?” “Does my Doctor know what he’s talking about?” “You must know what works – so share it with us!”

I really don’t know what they should do (except to buy and read my book). Sometimes they think I’m withholding information from them. After all, I have prostate cancer and I wrote a book so I must be an expert. Don’t I wish…

I tell than that if I knew of a cure for prostate cancer I would first cure myself and then share that information with the rest of the world – for a small fee, of course.

What I can do, and try to do, is to live my life the way I say that I do (in the book and during the talks). Whatever it is that I do must be working at least a little - I’m still alive. Basically that consists of good nutrition, staying active, keeping a positive outlook (most of the time), and thinking pure thoughts (OK, probably not the pure thoughts part). I’m not a saint, not even a little bit saintly, and would not recommend that anybody emulate me – unless they came to that conclusion after checking things out for themselves.

Men with prostate cancer should (probably) get as much information as possible, make choices based on their best judgment, and be willing to change direction if something doesn’t work. As far as I can determine, nobody knows for sure what anybody with prostate cancer should do.

axman

Men and Doctors – Keeping One from the Other

I’ve never known a man who would willingly go to see his doctor unless blood was gushing from a manly wound someplace. We all know it’s a good idea to get checkups, vaccinations, and prescriptions from time to time. But I put off doctor visits until my wife yells at me (inducing greater fear than seeing the doctor) and sometimes (usually) she even calls to make the appointment.

Most of the women I know make regular doctor appointments, write them down, and then actually show up at the appointed time. They don’t even make a big deal about it. Rumor has it that women (in general) live longer than men (in general). Could there be a connection between seeing a doctor and living longer? Nahhhh.

Don’t get me wrong, I get along just fine with my doctors. I even like them. I see four or five different physicians from time to time. Not one of them has ever mistreated me, lectured me, or even pointed and laughed. Maybe it comes down to some primordial need or urge to be manly and take care of myself. Or it may be inherent stubbornness or laziness – more likely. My wife would agree with all these reasons.

axman