A View - Surviving Prostate Cancer

[Guest guest]

More from Ralph Valle on prostate cancer advocacy.

Kathy

Kathy and Judy,

By all means. Hope you get them going...

RalphV

<http://www.azustoo.org/>www.azustoo.org

At 10:53 AM 5/9/2005 -0400, Kathy Meade wrote:

>Ralph great post. Do you mind if I share it? Maybe it will inspire a

>few more men to be activists.

>

>Kathy

>

> A view Surviving prostate cancer these days

>

>

>Hello all,

>It seems like yesterday, but I am getting close to surviving prostate

>cancer for 13 years...Incredible that I am still around, when told

>after the initial treatment, that I had three years of an uphill

>battle. They were not totally wrong, because it has been a real uphill

>battle in more than a personal survival sense. I am talking about

>living in and within the confused and confusing world of prostate

>cancer and the inexplicable lack of unity in the male ranks concerning

>personal health. Did you know that there is not an Office of Men's

>Health in the United States? None! We have done it and are doing it to

>ourselves...

>

>Hardly a day goes by in which prostate cancer is not in the news. A

>popular personality has been diagnosed or died of the disease. New and

>improved treatments are marketed to treat the disease. Research has new

>drugs as magic bullets that we are exposed to frequently. In spite of

>all this, the average male showing up at the support group's doorsteps

>are pitifully uninformed. Many as much as some of us were at the time

>of our diagnoses. It has got to be the Wayne syndrome. The

>Wayne syndrome? Yeah, shot at and hit, but never show for a moment a

>sign of weakness...we are men! What's a little pain in the lower back?

> " It will go away I am sure " we say to ourselves Blood in urine? " Oh, I

>must have ruptured a blood vessel when I was fixing my car yesterday "

>We always seem to have an excuse, don't we? And health concerns and

>responsibility are ignored...

>

>But wait, in the case of prostate cancer it is not all our fault. We do

>get mixed messages. Testing with PSA and DRE is not recommended on one

>hand. On the other, if diagnosed with low grade disease studies show

>that men live 20 more years without treatment. Since prostate cancer in

>many cases does not demonstrate symptoms or if it does it is usually

>more advanced than low grade, how do we interpret those messages? Hey,

>don't be a wiseguy when we all know that so many men have occult

>prostate cancer and so few die of it. Why worry? It will never happen

>to me...No small wonder we are surprised when it does.

>

>One big disappointment in the prostate cancer advocacy movement is the

>apathy demonstrated by survivors in promoting prostate cancer awareness

>to the public. We do not seem to be able to do it on our own. It would

>take little effort to propagate awareness if we all did our part, but

>time and time again we fail to do it. There, I said what I said and

>feel better already...

>

>You all have a great week. I am working on mine...

>

>Godspeed,

>

>RalphV

>

><http://www.azustoo.org/>www.azustoo.org

>