Incase you’ve noticed I’ve been absent for a couple of months. So here’s why:
I was diagnosed with prostate cancer the end of 2016. Prostate cancer is often not a big deal, because it often does not grow or move, if at all. However, mine was different. It is the most aggressive type and in 2016 the doctor gave me 18 to 24 months of life. I spent a week-end preparing myself for an early death. It wasn’t an entirely horrible weekend. It was actually quite enlightening for me.
So they did CT and Bone scans the next week, and although the cancer was so aggressive, it had not spread far beyond the prostate. So they scheduled surgery right away.
Things proceeded thusly:
- The surgery was robotic, the surgeons operating remotely. (Look up De Vinci Robotics)
- I spent the next year recuperating from the surgery.
- After that, 7 weeks of radiation and 2 years of Chemo (ADT).
- I spent the next year, cancer free, trying to improve my health, losing more than 50 pounds and curing my diabetes and high blood pressure (side effects of the chemo).
- After that year scans indicated small cancer nodules in my lymph nodes, only millimeters in size.
- 2 more years of Chemo and the cancer is still there, but it doesn’t appear to have grown or spread. I’ll be on the (ADT) chemo from now on.
Interestingly, the cancer has never bothered me, one bit. The chemo, though, has been an entirely different matter.
Side effects:
- Hot flashes
- Fatigue
- Loss of libido, though I recognize now how distracting thoughts of sex were to doing my work.
- Depression
- Constipation
- Insomnia
And there are at least 19 other side effects that have never materialized for me.
Reflections on the experience has made me a calmer man. I think a lot, as much as my short-term memory allows.
I hope to keep posting for a while. But don’t fret, because I am absolutely not afraid.
And Guys. Get your PSA checked every time you go to your doctor for a checkup. My doctor told me that if we’d caught the disease two weeks later, there would have been no sense in the surgery.
We are ALL given this life, out of love, and mine has been weird and wonderful. But with this loving gift, comes the fact that EVERYONE, regardless of who or where they are has every opportunity to have a wonderful life — perhaps not so weird.
Jesus NEVER taught us to hate.
David (ASD) Warlick