Eleven months into this journey

A healthy lifestyle

I've lived a lifestyle of healthy living, with moderate levels of running, weight lifting, or swimming almost daily for the last 40 years, and relatively healthy eating. Along the way, I've tried to be generous with my time with others. I had developed an assumption - admittedly irrational - that barring some type of accident, I would live a long, long active life, well into my 90s.

Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

And then, at 66 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, with a Gleason score of 4+3. Talk about a punch in the gut! That was the last thing I expected to hear from my urologist. After all, my PSA was only 3.7, and in blood tests over the years had never reached the supposed 4.0 above the normal threshold.

Processing a cancer diagnosis

My first thought was, well hell, so much for all that healthy living bs! Then, I spent days, weeks really, lying around and crying. Finally, I settled on going through this one day at a time, staying as healthy as I can. I made the decision to undergo radiation treatments, and after my course of 45 treatments, I am happy with my decision. Still, the fear of this cancer flaring up again somewhere in my body, and the loss of my illusion of being invincible and healthy still bother me, though. Perhaps I should just count my blessings.

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