July 13, 2016
Hi, Kiddo.
I had an infusion this morning, and in a short while I will have a full body bone scan. It's nothing unusual for someone my age. A few weeks ago a doctor explained to me that, at age 70, I had a 50 percent chance of prostate cancer, and that's indeed what my urologist found when he performed the saturation biopsy on June 27. At my age prostate cancer obviously is very common. Usually it is extremely slow growing, presenting virtually no threat. But there are some considerations, the main one being a high PSA (prostate specific antigen) count of 19, when the norm is 2-4. What is especially interesting is that the count has gone from gradual growth over several years to an escalated growth, which has gotten the attention of me and my urologist.
You'll note that I'm writing this somewhat impersonally, because this is more than an e-mail to you -- these messages have become a blog about this process, so that I can track this as a bona fide cancer patient, which I now am. I'm doing this because we are both male, and some day, unless there are dramatic changes in medicine relating to men's health, you have a high probability of developing prostate cancer as well. You are more than my heir from a standpoint of estate. You are my genetic heir as well, and also a social heir. And, as I said, you are male. So, you should have at least a mild interest in the progress of this disease.
While I am not advertising the blog, it's there to be discovered by other men my age who may be curious about what may befall them. My understanding is that it's a virtual certainty that all men who live long enough will eventually develop the disease over time -- and so they might as well have a sense of what to expect. Perhaps they will benefit from what I write here. While it's unusual for me to publish information about my nether regions, I'm comfortable with it, because in a sense this is not my story alone; it is kind of an Everyman morality play.
It's also an opportunity to keep a record for my own use on how this progresses.
The blog is not going to be highly technical. Those who want to know all the minutia can speak to their urologist or oncologist, or they can perform online research. On the other hand, it provides a foundation for any man to start from.
By now you may have guessed why I asked you to produce the graphic of a man beholding a crab in his outstretched palm, much like the image of Hamlet, contemplating the skull of Yorick. "Cancer", as you may know, is Latin for "crab." Ironically, according to a Google search,
cancer, is the dimmest of the 13 constellations of the Zodiac, having only two stars above the fourth magnitude. Cancer lies between Leo, the lion, and Gemini, the twins.
Well, my biopsy, which involved probing in the vicinity of my Leo and Gemini, also turned up two stars out of 24 samples, so there's some symmetry there.
And so, in honor of this adventure, which has roots dating back to about 2005, when my heightened PSA first became known, I am calling my newest blog Crabwatch. And I'll be watching my cancer -- as much as I am able, anyway, considering where it's situated.
Love,
Dad
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