Jim's prostate saga

If you’re a male member of the family you should read this. If you’re a female member of the family that is related to a male member of the family or know of a male that you are care about, you should read this. In fact if you're a male or female that can read you should read this. Sandi and I are about to embark on a trip that we hadn’t planned on, but are forced to take. For some reason I don't think it's going to be like our recent Iowa trip, it'll be different. Much different.

I had a physical in May and the doctor in Crescent City found that my prostate was a little larger than normal and the blood test results showed that my PSA (prostate-specific antigen) was out of the normal (0-4.) expected range. Mine was 4.6. Hence the reason to go to a urology specialist in Medford just before we left on our trip.

The urology doctor, Dr. Bui, called us back on Tuesday with the results of the prostate biopsy that I had on July 18. For the biopsy he had taken 12 samples from different parts of the prostate. Even with a Valium and a beer prior to the visit it was not exactly the most pleasant of experiences. Two of the twelve came back as having cancer present. The medical community uses a scale called the Gleason’s Scale that is measured from 2-10. It is arrived at by using two things; the grade of the cancer and the stage of the cancer. They then assign a number. My number was 6. We are going to go to Medford on Tuesday to consult with doctor as to treatment. There will be some form of treatment but we don’t know what yet. It could be Radical prostatectomy, Radiation therapy, Active Surveillance, or a combination of the above.

I think he will be a very fine doctor but it did make me wonder why he chose this specialty. My thinking went something like this, I can just see all the doctors graduating from their medical schools and they have to line up to talk to someone about what they want to do after graduation. The ones with the highest GPAs get first choices on specialties like plastic surgery or mammography. The ones at the end of the line with the lower GPAs get whatever is left. I know it’s not really like this, but it did make me wonder.

We found out that the most common risk factor of prostate problems in men is age. I guess this means that I didn’t opt to skip my birthday early enough this year.

Randy has been encouraging us to take a health and ancestry DNA test administered through a company called 23andme. He bought the full package and was able to trace back Ben's lineage to that town in New Mexico. He did look back at the health results and found that he does have a higher than normal chance of having prostate problems. I guess that puts me, as his father, at an even higher that normal chance of having prostate problems. They are able to find a persons likelihood of many other problems too. Here is the address: https://www.23andme.com/

Don't tell Randy I told you, but I understand that he's getting me a health test like this for my birthday (the one I'm not celebrating). I guess it'll tell me what else I'm predisposed to getting, but I do encourage you to get this test too.
Jim