The Big "C" - Part 1 (standard:non fiction, 2385 words) [1/3] show all parts
Author: casio1933	Added: May 07 2008	Views/Reads: 3374/2104	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
When I was 42 years okd, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer - this is the story of that ordeal

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story


Joe said he was "so upset"  because he had been so sure there was no
malignancy he had almost recommended that Dad not have the biopsy done. 
 He had insisted on a second pathology report and had finally examined 
the tissue sample personally.  At  Dad's age a six‑month delay in 
finding the cancer probably would  have meant it would have spread to 
other parts of  the body and would have been inoperable.  Dad probably 
would  have been dead within two years. 

A  pretty serious question and answer session followed.  Because  he was
so sure Dad did not have cancer,  Joe had told  neither  Mom nor Dad of 
the possible consequences ‑  even  if  the  operation was 
successful.  The discussion  included  the potential  for loss of 
bladder control and possible loss of bowel control,  the almost sure 
loss of ability to achieve an erection.  "You probably won't be able to 
engage in intercourse anymore," explained Joe, "this surgery will just 
about destroy your sex life.  I just want you to be aware of what  the 
consequences are.  I don't think you have any choice but  to  get it 
out,  but you should know that many men who have this operation and 
survive the cancer still end up as  alcoholics, divorced and in some 
cases commit suicide ‑ there are  any number of truly bad things 
that happen to some of them." 

It  was a mighty gloomy picture for Mom and Dad that Joe  was depicting.
 "However”, he continued, "there are a lot of men who do handle it.  I 
think you can handle it.  You'll  need some help and a lot of support, 
but it's not something you'll  go through by yourself.  You've got your 
wife with you, and I think this is something ya'll can handle.  The 
main thing  is  to make a decision as to how you want to handle  it."  
I'm  a surgeon, and my gut reaction is to get it cut out of  there.  It 
 is a rare occasion that I can tell a patient I can cure him,  but I 
can stand here and tell you that I can cure  you.  I feel very strongly 
you should opt for the surgery." 

Joe went on to explain to Dad there were alternatives to surgery,   the 
most likely candidate being  radiation  therapy.  "They've had some 
good results,  but there have not been that     many years experience 
and the cancer is still there  'encased     in  scar tissue.'  If I cut 
it out it's gone for good  ‑  you     won't have to worry about 
it coming back.”  Dad told Joe  he needed to think about it a little 
bit. 

When Max came in, a few minutes after Joe had left, he had already 
obtained the pathology report.  He, Mom and Dad discussed  the pros and 
cons of radiation therapy ‑ Max said  he would do some research 
on the latest available information. 

All this had hit Mom and Dad squarely between the eyes, and to add to
it,  Joe said he needed to do a kidney scan and  a bone scan to be sure 
the cancer had not spread.  If either of  the scans were positive,  he 
said Dad would  need  chemotherapy  or radiation therapy in addition to 
the removal  of  the  prostate. 

Max came back into the room a little while after Mom had left for work. 
He and Dad discussed chemotherapy and radiation therapy.  Dad told Max, 
"If either of the scans are positive,  I'm  not going to have surgery 
and I'm not going to undergo any kind of therapy ‑ chemo or 
otherwise”.  "I'm going to put on my god dammed pants and go back to 
work.  I feel great.  I haven't been sick in the first place and I'm 
not going to let  myself  be made into an invalid."  Max told Dad he 
really could not fault that decision, "that kind of  treatment  can 
take a sick person and make them sicker.  That is a very   personal 
decision and one you have to make.”  Dad told  Max  that if the scan/s 
were positive and he decided against treatment, he wanted some 
assurance that he would not experience a lot of pain (I mentioned 
earlier, Dad is a coward when it comes to hurting).  Max assured him 
there would be medications available to him that would minimize any 
pain  he  may     experience as the cancer progressed. 

In recent years,  Dad had seen several close relatives die of cancer
after taking radiation and/or chemotherapy.  He felt they would have 
been better off dead six months before they were.  They were miserable, 
their families  were  miserable,  and  he  knew they did not enjoy any 
part of  the  "lingering  on”. 

That afternoon,  they took Dad down for the kidney scans and the bone
scans.  To add to his worry, the preliminary scan indicated a spot on 
one kidney.  The x‑ray technician said she thought it might be 
"bowel gas”.  The doctor ordered a  full     scan the next day. 

Wednesday  ‑ Dad & Mom got some good news early,  before  Dad 
went for the full kidney scan.  The bone scan was  negative.  That 
afternoon  the full kidney scans showed  the  suspicious  spot was gone 
‑ bowel gas, after all. 

Thursday  ‑ After lunch,  Max came by.  He had spent about three
hours on the phone,  with one of the  top  radiation therapists at the 
Houston Medical Center,  discussing  treatment of prostate cancer with 
radiation.  Dad asked Max. "If I go with the radiation therapy,  what 
are the side effects as compared with surgery?”  Max replied,  "Well, 
not really  that much different.  The level of radiation needed to 
encapsulate    the  cancer  would  be such that the prostate  would  be 
 destroyed.  So, from that stand point,  the side effect would be the 
same ‑ impotence.  In addition the colon, bladder and all the 
other organs in that area could experience some deterioration as a 
result of the high level of radiation required  to  assure neutralizing 
the cancer in the prostate ‑  bladder control, as well as bowel 
control, could conceivably be impaired." 

"Under the same circumstances, what would you do?"  Dad asked.  "I'm not
sure,"  Max responded,  "I believe in that situation I  would go for 
the surgery, even though the radiation treatment can be performed on an 
outpatient basis and the operation    means a hospital stay with a long 
painful recovery,  I would still  opt for the surgery."  With Dad's 
confidence  in  Max,  that settled the issue and when Joe stopped  by 
later,  Dad   asked how soon he could operate.  As  it  turned out,  
Joe had scheduled an operating room for the next day.  That night, Dad 
got his "close shave" from neck to knees. 

Max came by late that night ‑ Dad told him he sure was sorry he
never got to go home before the surgery.  He really wanted  to try out 
that new vasectomy. 

Friday A.M. ‑ As Dad was being wheeled out of his room on the  way
to the operating room, Joe told him and Mom not to worry,  the 
operation probably would not take more than a couple of  hours.  Four 
hours later,  Mom had not heard anything ‑  she  was about to go 
"nuts”.  It was another hour before Joe came out of the operating room. 
 He told her everything had gone well, but he had taken a little more 
time than he  had  anticipated in order to do some "repair" work. 

When Dad awakened in recovery later that afternoon, he had to piss so
bad he didn't know what to do.  The pain and pressure were terrible.  
With his low threshold for pain,  had he not been so doped up,  he 
probably would have wrecked something.  Of course,  being drunk,  he 
didn't realize the catheter installed during the operation had gotten 
"kinked" and couldn't let his bladder drain.  When Mom was permitted 
into the recovery room to see him for a few minutes,  she saw the tears 
 on  his  cheeks and knew something was wrong.  She quickly found the 
problem with the catheter and when she finished  with the recovery room 
attendants ‑ they wished they had found it. 

By  late afternoon,  Dad had sufficiently awakened to be  returned to
his room.  Joe came in during the early evening and  tried to explain 
why the operation had taken so long.  He had taken  the  time to 
attempt sewing some of the  muscles back around  the  urethra in an 
effort to minimize problems with bladder control.  He said it had taken 
over three‑hundred stitches.  For that reason Dad was going to 
have to  remain  flat on his back for at least a week and not attempt 
to  move  out of the bed.  If he did, he could tear those stitches out 
and pull the muscles away.  If that happened  he  certainly would have 
no/minimal control of his bladder ‑ Joe had given him his best 
shot at minimizing the incontinence often associated with radical 
prostate surgery.  From the contractions, Dad was experiencing, he felt 
the muscles were already working, however, he took Joe's warning 
seriously. 

Dad had one final query,  "Did you really think it necessary to sew that
damm catheter to my dick?”  There were two large stitches, one on each 
side of the penis.  The  heavy  black thread looked like thirty-pound 
test fishing line.  It was looped and tied around the catheter.  It 
looked like hell and  as Dad was to find out later felt like hell.  Joe 
told Dad he  felt the stitches tied to the catheter were necessary to  
assure  the catheter would not be expelled before the internal muscles 
were healed.  If the catheter were expelled, it would destroy all the 
fine needlework he had done inside to pre‑  vent  incontinence.  
There was nothing that could be done after the fact.  Dad was just 
going to  have to live with  that  damm catheter for about a month.


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