The Road Ahead

So yesterday, the good Mrs. Jepsen and I had another fun medi-date. These are about the only kind of dates we get these days. Instead of Netflix and chill, it’s more urologist and Chick-fil-a.

This time we got to drive up to Avon Indiana for a friendly chat with a prostate cancer specialist at IU health. If you haven’t tried this for your own date night I highly recommend it.

We had to wait a month for this appointment, but we felt it needed. You see, the doctor who did my biopsy had recommended surgery, as did another oncologist. But…I DON’T WANT surgery. Especially prostate surgery.

For some reason God put the prostate all around and inter-twined with a bunch of other organs and stuff. Removing it is a rather delicate task with some unfortunate possible side effects. So I was really, really hoping to avoid that.

Those two doctors did say that instead of surgery I could go the route of beam radiation combined with drugs that block all testosterone production for two years. But that has its own set of nasty side effects (weight gain, fatigue, mood swings, and man-boobs) which last much longer.

But I had been reading about all kinds of newer, alternate ways to treat prostate cancer, things with cool names like brachytherapy, cryotherapy, and the cyberknife (which, confusingly, involves no knives or surgery at all). And, since IU is a teaching hospital, I thought they might have some new and radical approach. Something that did not involve ripping out my prostate or shooting radiation beams at me like I’m an alien space ship.

In fact, what I really wanted to hear is something like this: “Hey, Dan, thanks for coming in. You fit exactly the profile for a new treatment. Here, take this pill once a day for a week. It will completely cure the prostate cancer, and the only side effects is that it will help you lose weight and become a better dancer”.

Is that too much to ask?

Apparently so. Dr. Adra did not offer a magic panacea. And he shot down every option I brought up? Brachytherapy? Nope. Cryotherapy. Not gonna happen. Cyberknife? In your dreams.

The problem is that I am in the 15 percent of prostate cancer patients who fall into the “high risk” category. And none of those treatment options are open to me. So I get to choose between beam radiation/testosterone deprivation…or surgery.

And since there is a 25 percent chance the cancer re-occurs in the next ten years, and since you can do radiation after surgery but not vice-versa, then surgery is the smart choice.

Now, I have not always, gentle reader, been accused of making the smart choice. But in this case the stakes are pretty high. So I am, in fact, making the smart choice.

Dang it.

Anyway, I hope to get this surgery in March. Perhaps just in time to watch March Madness while I recover. And maybe I will write the great American novel.

I might not have energy for that, come to think of it. How about a couple blog posts?

Anyway, thanks for your prayers, and keep them coming, please.