I have been trying to decide whether to make this post or not as I am still waiting on some more results following on from some surgery for Prostate Cancer.
Obviously, I have decided to make this post, and for one reason only and that is the deciding factor was a report that I received from the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, some of the key statistics are below –
-
- Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia and the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Australian men
- 24,217 Australian men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2022.
- 66 Australian men are diagnosed each day with prostate cancer, and about 10 Australian men will die each day from the disease.
The sole reason for my making this post is that if you are a male property manager then you need to go and have a simple blood test to check your PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) levels which are an indicator of the potential of prostate cancer. However, as this industry is primarily female you are in the position to influence your farther, husband, partner, brother, or friend to have the blood test particularly if they are over 50. However, if they are younger, they should discuss this with their GP because if they are younger, it does not mean they will not be at risk.
Prevention is the key, I had no symptoms and was feeling extremely healthy, going to the gym 3 days a week, and eating quite healthy. I have for some time been vigilant in having an annual check-up, which included PSA tests. I went for my annual check-up at the end of January this year and 24 hours later at 7pm I received a call from my GP saying:
“Hello David, this is not the phone call you want from me, but I want you in here tomorrow morning to see me as your PSA levels are up “.
As part of the process, you are put on a course of high-grade antibiotics just in case it is an infection, so after 3 weeks another blood test, then another phone call for my GP “David we have to move on this it is extremely aggressive and your PSA has gone up 30% in the 3 weeks, come in tomorrow so we can discuss our options”
From here my life just went into a series tests, MRI’s, PET scan, CT scan, visits to specialists, biopsy, then more blood tests. Then surgery delayed because I caught COVID till finally robotic surgery on July 26.
After the surgery, the specialist contacted me as they had to remove the prostate which was sent for a histology and he said that in the few weeks between the biopsy and surgery it had grown from an 8 to a 9, 10 is the highest.
The above is meant to highlight the importance of the blood test for early detection, had I not had the blood test and only reacted once I had symptoms, I would have been DEAD.
We are now waiting for some more blood test to be carried out in a couple of weeks to see if there is any cancer still present.
So, you just have to make them go a get a blood test, you may have to keep pushing, seems to me that a lot of males are happy to talk about breast, ovarian and cervical cancer (and all of these are important conversations but when it comes to prostate it is “no I don’t need that I will be fine mate,” well the above stats tell a different story. I spoke with somebody recently about the test and his comment was sort of like the above so I said to him “well I guess it’s like this, if you get it and you die then really it means nothing to you because when you are dead it is all over for you, but for the family and loved ones you leave behind they have to try and keep on living so it seems what you are really saying is that you don’t care what pain and suffering you cause them because it is all about you”, he went for the blood test and his wife invited me over to have a wine with them.
You have the ability to not allow your farther, husband, partner, brother, friend, or yourself to be one of the –
- 3,507 Australian men who will die from prostate cancer in 2022
Please share this story with your loved ones to make sure they get checked.
