Looking Back
My parents retired from the farm and lived in a small town near the Manitoba Saskatchewan border. I remember talking to my mom on the phone. She said that my father had to go to the city to see about some tests that he recently had.
I took a few days off from work and went out to visit them and drive him to the city for the appointment. It turned out that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The doctor said that it was serious but treatable. It was a quiet trip home. I did not know what to say and he did not either. He felt that it was a death sentence.
My father decided that he wanted beam radiation treatments. Their home was a 3 hour drive to the closest cancer center. He packed up a suitcase and went to stay with my brother for who lived near the city. 39 treatments meant that he needed to stay there for 2 months.
The cancer center had volunteers that drive patients from their home to the cancer center and then drive them back home again. That was a 40 km round trip… 39 times. I often think about the kindness of that driver. My brother told me that the driver helped my father deal with the stresses of the diagnosis and treatments. They became good friends.
When he came back home my father never really talked about his cancer and the effects of the treatments. He quietly lived past 90 and died from old age.
What I took from my father’s experience was that people do survive cancer. Survivability is improved with early detection. I made sure that my doctor checkups included the PSA and finger tests.
My prostate was never an organ that stayed in the background. I had many infections and irritations starting in my 30s and extended throughout my life. In some ways… I felt that it was just a matter of time. In my early 60s the PSA numbers started creeping up.
My urologist decided that it was time for a biopsy.