My Prostate Cancer Treatment – Update Pt.III
Why Do I bare All?
To start this post off I want to explain, as best I can, why it is that I am prepared to bare all regarding my dismal health history over recent years. And yes, as you’ve probably guessed, it has to do with my philosophical stance concerning my battle with aggressive prostate cancer.
When first diagnosed in May 2006, and having ultimately taken the decision to take the ‘watchful waiting’ approach, I determined from the start that it did not mean sitting back waiting for my urologist to come up with the answers, nor simply, by hoping for the best. It meant taking responsibility for my own dilemma and creating my own set of solutions.
My Pro-Active Stance:
And so, after full discussions with my darling wife and receiving her full support, I decided on a three-fold approach; physiological, psychological and spiritual. I hasten to add here that by spiritual I don’t mean in a religious context although my wife would probably suggest otherwise.
Researching Medical & Health Web-Sites:
Subsequently, I set about increasing the time given to researching health issues on the internet. It soon became apparent to me that many of the countless medical and health sites dedicated to giving advice about prostate cancer seem to mirror one another regarding medical advice and other content. Information, by and large, was just being rehashed and presented as new. Some sites, with a little digging behind the scenes I even identified as being a surreptitious front for the peddling of medical equipment or particular drugs and aimed at patients.
I also found quite a few seemingly genuine health forums relating to cancer, including some dedicated to prostate cancer, where men wrote of their experiences pre-op and post-op. All too often I fear, it was wives writing of their own partner’s experiences post op, with tales of woe and heartbreak, describing the many disappointments, the pain and the suffering leading to the ultimate demise of their loved ones.
Patients Show Lack of Medical Knowledge:
But what especially disturbed me when reading all these comments from cancer sufferers and their partners was their absolute lack of knowledge about their particular type of cancer, their apparent unwillingness to research the subject and most disturbing of all, their willingness to repeatedly go back to their doctor for more of the same, no matter how many treatments fail or make things worse.
Taking all this on board I began searching for sites where men told of having cast aside conventional, allopathic treatments and had treated themselves with alternative or complimentary medicine. Some sites also identified with an overall holistic approach.
Alternative or Complimentary Therapies a Last Resort:
But what was most depressing was that many had turned to complimentary or alternative treatments in desperation after bad results from surgery or other conventional medical treatments. Only a couple or so had taken the ‘do it yourself’ approach and not one could I find running a blog from scratch, that is from the point of diagnosis thru the rigmarole of advice from doctors and specialists to final decision making and thence, thru to self treatment and subsequent experiences.
My Prostate Ruminate Blog is Born:
From this then was born the idea of doing a blog myself, as a diary or journal, telling of my own feelings, experiences, research, dieting practices and treatment regimen. I quickly grasped onto the idea from two viewpoints. Firstly, I was entering a new challenge where there didn’t appear, on the face of it at least, to be any blogs of a similar ilk and from where I could get advice or assistance. And I do so love a challenge!
Helping Fellow Cancer Sufferers:
It became quite clear to me that here was a much needed service which I could provide to fellow travelers – some say ‘victims’ but I don’t see myself as that – telling it like it is when the big C strikes and a guy needs to battle with prostate cancer. I could offer, by way of example and experience, treatment options other than surgery, chemo, radiation, or hormone therapy, a treatment ultimately leading to the removal of one’s testicles. Avoiding also all the debilitating and downright dangerous side effects that go with all of the aforementioned.
My next point was of a selfish nature. I obviously new – and had to accept – that my medical history in recent years had been a complex one and it had taken its toll on my general well-being. I realized too that if I was going to fight my cancer in my own way and on my own terms, it was going to take dedicated time and commitment from me and I couldn’t permit anger, self pity or other human emotions to consume me, as is so often the case. I would have to have a focus above and beyond my own health dilemma and treatment scenario.
Developing a website and running a blog (this blog) became that focus, providing for me a distraction and also, a psychological release.
Stay tuned. More to come/:
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