Cancer update

I thought I'd go ahead and update about the latest in Paul's fight against cancer.  After meeting with a third surgeon, we finally felt confident about scheduling it with him, and did so before even leaving the office. We feel very lucky for having such an early stage cancer that was caught when still curable.  At age 43, it is just not routinely screened for (screening routinely begins at age 50).  Producing no symptoms usually until it is in later stages, prostate cancer has been called a silent killer.  It is very common.  One in six men will be diagnosed with it.  Although, most men are older, it is not just an old man's cancer.  Paul's talked with a few other men who had it in their 40's also.  They also had caught it early.  I've also found a local guy from the blogosphere that was diagnosed at age 42.  With advanced prostate cancer.  Cancer sucks at any age.  But, when you are raising your children still, it is just devastating.  We are so blessed that we WILL beat this.  I want to recommend to everyone reading this to please get your PSA screening.  Or if you are a woman, make sure your husband/brother/dad gets screened.  It is a simple blood test.  If you are under 50, you'll need to be more proactive to get it done.  If you have no family history, your doctor may think it's silly.  Well if I have learned anything this past couple of months, it's that prostate cancer is NOT just an old man's cancer.  And it's almost always curable when caught early.  Don't wait!

We have booked surgery for August 25th.  While I was anxious to get it out asap, it is a slow growing cancer and contained so this wait is perfectly acceptable and safe.  This surgeon books out about 6 weeks in advance and does 5-6 of them a week.  Paul will be having a nerve-sparing minimally invasive robotic prostatectomy.  Those fancy words basically boil down to a doctor being able to see better (less blood/cameras inserted via robots) and be more precise.  It also means an easier recovery.  Paul will come home from the hospital the next day, but will need to be home for three weeks after the surgery to recover. The good (and bad) thing about robotic surgery is that Paul will be feeling pretty darn good pretty quick, bad because it is critical to his healing and long term recovery to take it easy for at least 6 weeks.   His surgeon told him he can fix a lot of things, but he can't fix stupid.  So even after 3 weeks when he is able to return to work, no heavy duty exercising or anything.  I think knowing what is at stake, Paul will, for once, have no problems following doctor's orders.

We are taking our annual hiking trip to the Rocky Mountains early this year - three weeks before surgery.  Paul also still has over a month of swimming with the boys, which is something they all really treasure doing together.  There is no good time to have your prostate removed, stay home 3 weeks and be a slug for 6.  However, we feel like we are able to get in a good amount of summer fun and some mountain climbing first.  So for that we are thankful.

We've had a lot of people wanting to support us in any way they can.  I'm going to let you know what you can do to support our family during this time, if you choose to do so.

- Pray for us (Paul, his surgeon, his recovery and all of our family)

- Help us out with the kids (We will need a lot of help that first 2 weeks especially.  The kids will have some special quiet time with Paul in bed eating snacks, watching shows, coloring, etc, but my kids are wild.  And they play rough with dad.  It's going to be a hard for them all to adjust and keeping them busy will help.)

- When around the kids (in particular, Noah) please don't associate the two words sick and death/dying ever.  Noah is in a stage right now where he fears death and losing his dad in particular (a friend of his lost her dad this past fall).  We will not use the "c" word.  We'll explain simply that daddy is sick and that a doctor removed the thing making him sick.  He will get better after some rest.  Even at his young age, the word cancer has some pretty negative associations. We don't need to scare him, because his daddy is beating this cancer and is not dying.

- Meals.  The first couple of weeks we'll gladly accept any help in the meal department.  While we enjoy good junk food every now and then, eating healthy, now more than ever is important to us.  

- Get your PSA screening.  Spread the word.  Prostate Cancer is crazy common and it sucks when it's not caught in time and spreads.  We don't want this to happen to you or your loved ones!

This journey has been an emotional rollercoaster for us.  We aren't looking forward to surgery, but we are looking forward to putting it behind us.  So surgery it is!  In the meantime we are going to have lots of fun being active with the kids.  Paul will also be focusing on going into surgery as healthy as possible.  Lots of fruits & veggies (especially those cruciferous ones) and exercise.  

Thanks for all your support.  We'll keep you posted.