Welcome


Welcome.

When I wrote that banner above, I was just days into this adventure. I'm a pretty analytical guy, and the simple act of writing every day helped me wrap my head around the fact that I had just introduced the word "cancer" into my vocabulary, and it helped me rationalize my treatment options. It also helped keep friends and family informed on my status.

Those daily updates tapered off to weekly updates and eventually to monthly updates (which I continue to do on the 11th of every month, the anniversary date of being told I have cancer).

I've kept this blog going because I remember how helpful it was for me to hear first-hand experiences of other prostate cancer patients. I wanted to return the favor by sharing my own journey in order to educate others and increase prostate cancer awareness.

But I wanted it to be a truthful sharing of details, so you will quickly see that I didn't sugar-coat much of anything. That means that you'll find some pretty graphic descriptions of the male anatomy and biological functions in this blog.

Finally, if you're reading this as a fellow prostate cancer patient, please understand that I am not a medical professional, and you should not construe any of the content of this blog as medical advice. Each case is unique, so please solicit the advice of your own medical team.

I wish you all the best as you go through your own journey.

-- Dan

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Month 39 - Encouraging News on Ability to Determine Aggressive Prostate Cancer

For those who have been regular readers of this blog, I hope you like the new layout.  Things were getting a little too cluttered, so I added a new column just for the blog's administrative links (left column) and kept all the prostate cancer-specific links in the right column.  It should make it a tad easier to navigate.

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Well, I'm past the head cold that I had and back to normal activity without pads.  I will have to admit, though, that even after the worst of it passed, I seemed to be a little more leak-prone for some reason.  But that's calmed down, too, thankfully.

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There's encouraging news about having a better ability to determine whether prostate cancer is the aggressive type that can kill you, or the less aggressive type that can be observed under active surveillance.  You can read about that in the previous post (re-blogged from the Prostate Cancer Foundation site).

This is important.  It will help avoid over-treatment of prostate cancer, subjecting men to some of the side-effects of a treatment regimen that they may not have needed in the first place.  Of course, men will still have to overcome the thought of living with cancer inside them, always wondering if and when it may spread into something much more difficult to deal with.




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