According to various reports, prostate cancer will be diagnosed in as many as one out of two American men. That's not good odds. And the odds are many times worse if there is a family history of prostate cancer.
It has been nine years since I learned that I had prostate cancer. And it was far enough along that my treatment options were reduced to only a few. The better choice was to undergo a radical prostatectomy. Nip it in the bud (pun intended). Get rid of the %&#* thing. And that's what I had done. It was a good decision but the worry of it returning never really went away.
The first five years I had semi-annual followup visits to the same Urologist, and although there were some annoying side effects, my PSA results were always, "No Detectable Amount."
With results like that my visits were changed to once annually but only because he didn't want to take any chances. Nor did I.
Today was my 9th year annual visit and the PSA results were the same, "No Detectable Amount."
I knew that it would be negative but it really feels good to hear it in person. Even better to hear, "There's no chance that the cancer will come back, but let's not take any chances. Come back in a year."
I can live with that...
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