robert frost, prostate cancer, the decision and the road not taken…

two paths but only one traveler can you be- with prostate cancer treatment decisions you have to do your homework, know your disease and make a decision. once you have “traveled down that road” of the prostate cancer decision, you can’t go back. that’s why its such a hard decision.

in the last stanza ” and that made all the difference” is usually interpreted as a positive difference. that someone took that path less traveled, maybe a harder path, and that because of that everything was better. the poem however does not say that. the paths are about the same and he reports on his decision with a “sigh.”

so too is the decision about prostate cancer, because you will never know how you would have done if you had chosen surveillance, surgery, or radiation if you did not choose that option.

frost died of complications of prostate cancer at age 88. he probably could not void, had a channel turp and then because of his age and other medical factors and complications died more of old age than of prostate cancer per se. it is however interesting how the poem relates to the prostate cancer decision and how patients will beat up themselves, the cancer and the doctor about how they do after a particular treatment. for surveillance-that the disease progressed, for radiation – some radiation side-effect or return of the cancer and then surgery- incontinence or erectile issues. “way lead unto way” and often the initial decision progresses on along it’s own defined path.

now you know the ” rest of the story.” sorry mom, you told me wrong on this one, however the road less traveled concept does work, i.e. taking the harder path can often work out for the best. but it doesn’t always and then you will never how the other way would have turned out. a tricky-tricky- poem indeed and a tricky-tricky disease as well.

read it again…..