A few words of introduction..
I am a 60 year old father of three, husband of one elementary school teacher. Days are spent at Gonzaga University, designing, installing and maintaining A/V equipment in classrooms. Most of my "spare" time is given to running a volunteer ski patrol.
Last week, on July 9, Cindy and I showed up for an appointment at the surgical urologists' office for the results of a biopsy. It went something like this:
Doctor: I've got your test results and some bad news. You have cancer and Alzheimer's.
Man: Boy, am I lucky! I was afraid I had cancer!
Fortunately, he didn't say anything about Alzheimer's, but the next hour was filled with strange terms such as "risk grade," "stage," "brachytherapy," and "photomicrograph." Suggested available treatments were offered: Surveillance, Hormonal therapy, surgery (open or Laparoscopic), radiation (external beam or brachytherapy), cryotherapy, and a shopping list of cutting edge therapies.
In the days since, I have read many anecdotal accounts of others having been through treatment, have watched fascinating videos of actual surgeries, and have received great advice from others that have first and second-hand experience.
What's next? Next Wednesday (7/21) we have a consultation with the DaVinci-certified surgeon (laparoscopic), then another meeting Friday with the oncologist that we had the initial meeting with a week ago. Hopefully a game plan can be put in place at the Friday meeting that I can live with.
I will be posting links that I have found helpful, if you have someone close that could use the information, these are resources that have helped me understand the disease and formulate a stategy to fight it.