So, we finally got the biopsy results today: It is, as we expected, cancer.
That’s the bad part. It’s a pretty bad “bad part,” but it’s not nearly as bad as it sounds. It’s “Grade 1” or a Gleason score of 6. It’s very small, it hasn’t spread, and it very closely resembles normal cells. The treatment for this is…nothing.
Well, OK, not “nothing.” The recommendation is what they refer to as “active surveillance.” That means checking the blood every six months and a biopsy every 1-3 years. In my case, it’ll be in one year on account of my doctor being a big believer in “an abundance of caution.”
That’s actually good, that abundance of caution. If they’re fine with not taking another chunk out of me for a year, then that’s a pretty good indication that there’s not a huge amount of immediate concern. The American Cancer Society website suggests that young and healthy men are seldom offered the option of just passive observation “out of concern that the cancer might become a problem over the next 20 or 30 years.”
If it shows signs of growing or getting more aggressive, then we hit it with radiation. That’s not something one looks forward to as the incidence of developing superpowers from exposure to radiation is far rarer than comic books have led me to believe. But, it’s also not a particularly radical treatment and the survival rate is north of 99%.
This is a helluva journey beyond “your bloodwork is a little off, let’s get this checked,” but that’s kind of the moral of the story. I wasn’t showing any other symptoms and might not have for a decade or more. Instead, we found it really early, early enough for “watch and wait” to be the recommended treatment.
I’m really glad that Nicole pushed me to get checked. It could wind up being life-saving, or, at the very least, hugely expensive and invasive treatment saving. Folks, if’n you have a prostate, that little guy has the potential to cause you some serious problems. As unpleasant as getting MRIs and biopsies is (and they are unpleasant), they beat the alternative. If there’s a problem, it’s there whether you know it or not.
So, that’s that for now, at least. I have one more thing to check in a couple of weeks for something that isn’t related and has a very low probability of being anything, but, again, “an abundance of caution” isn’t a bad way to approach one’s health. Anyway, and this is the whole point, I get to stop writing about getting my prostate checked for a while which is something I have been really looking forward to.
I imagine you’ve been looking forward to that as well.
Thanks for sticking with me. It wasn’t good news, but, by gum, it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as it could have been. We’ll talk about music or video games or synthesizers I can’t play worth a damn or sports or food or anything else for a bit.
Cheers,
-RK