he that has five and spends six...has no need of a purse
I am working on a movie starring the prostate using as the background a song that my brother Rushton wrote years ago…here are some of the lyrics….think of it as the prostate waiting patiently just inside the male’s body, harboring asymptomatic prostate cancer, to be examined and then to be taken care of. It’s the prostate that is singing the song…here’s a tease….
” I don’t need rolaids my friend
I’ve got troubles at the other end
Heartaches and hemorrhoids from sitting around waiting for you…
To come home to me dear…like you said you’d do”
You might think it.s a stretch but I think I can have the prostate sitting around in a chair just inside the …you know what….
anyway was pondering the movie and I saw this man’s story on Jo-an Peters’ survey website…
This commentary is based around my own personal journey with prostate cancer.
Of the number of priorities that I have learned since the disease, this would be the utmost.If you care about yourself and others who are in your life, get your ass down to the doctor and have regular check ups.
Having gone through this now, I think the most bazaar part about having prostate cancer is feeling so good and physically fit. I am slim, I happen to be a hard working guy who actually enjoys work, I do not smoke, 36 years as a vegetarian, I haven’t drank coffee in about thirty years, my alcohol intake amounts to about four bottles of beer per year. I am quite am active cyclist, kayaker, cross country skier, climber and hiker, snowshoer, and love to do landscaping where I can push boulders around for hours. After working the usual nine or ten hour day in my woodworking shop, I would have my typical large supper and continue to cycle or canoe until dark. I felt so good that I could hardly wait to do it again the next day and the next. But what I didn’t know was that my prostate was slowly being eaten away by cancer, while I felt so strong and healthy. How could this be, you ask? Wake brothers, this is cancer.
When a man contracts this disease and does not get regular check ups, he will go on with his usual routine for many years feeling quite healthy, happy and content, thinking that life is so wonderful. One day he wakes up and there are signs of fatigue, sluggishness and maybe blood in the urine. At that point the chances are great that the cancer may have spread too far and his life may be over very shortly.
By taking an apathetic approach to regular medical checks-ups, seems to me like a sort of death wish suicide mission that some people are on. Do they care so little about themselves, their family and their friends that they would sooner die?
For days I watched my dad die slowly with prostate cancer, yelling and screaming for help while writhing in pain because the cancer had advanced beyond the strongest drug available to relieve his agony.He did not believe in regular check-ups and that was his choice. If I could have asked him whether he had made the right choice, I can only guess what his response would have been.
Early detection for prostate cancer most likely means living another twenty, thirty or forty more good healthy years. If you wish, you can choose to die early and perhaps experience what I witnessed with my dad, but really, if you saw what I did, I think you would change your mind. You have choices. Which one will you choose? One man in seven will get this disease. Think about that for a moment would you? Count how many men you know. It might be twenty-five, thirty-five, or forty. Five or six of them will get prostate cancer. Will it be you? It might be, but, with early detection the recovery may hardly be an issue and you could live on to be a healthy and strong senior watching your grandchildren grow and finally marry.
If I’m scarring you, GOOD. This is my intent. Make an appointment with your doctor right away. Have your prostate checked and your blood work done. In other words, GET YOUR ASS DOWN THERE.
Prostate Diaries 