Time-Life Medical

 

(Time-Life Medical asked me to ghostwrite a series of first-person accounts of people with heart disease, prostate cancer, and migraine headaches to provide personal glimpses into these conditions. They were so please with the results they used the pieces as the template for a massive health web project that employed two dozen writers.)

 

Prepared For Recurrence
By James Lewis, Jr. (as told to Joe Mullich)

In 1989, I had a PSA test, and the reading came back 15 -- a strong suggestion I had prostate cancer. The urologist called me in for a biopsy. The doctor had just gotten a transrectal ultrasound machine in his office. My urologist wasn't there, but his associate was. The person who had sold the doctor the machine was teaching the associate how to use it. I was the guinea pig.

Based on the biopsy, my doctor diagnosed me with benign prostate hyperplasia. It turned out, however, the biopsy had been conducted incorrectly. Instead of taking six samples from my prostate for the biopsy, the doctor only took two. Because of that, my cancer wasn't detected. I went to another urologist for routine testing a year and a half later and my PSA had risen all the way to 42. After a battery of more tests, the doctor confirmed I had prostate cancer.

All sorts of questions went through my mind. How long will I have to live? How will my wife and children react to this? Why was this happening to me? Why again? Twelve years before I'd had colon cancer.

"Spots" on the Film

I had a CT and bone scan, and the doctor found "spots" on the film. The doctor didn't know whether the spots indicated I had metastasized prostate cancer or Paget's Disease, a bone disease that is the reverse of osteoporosis or "brittle bones."

I was put on combination hormone therapy. The doctor told me after hormone therapy, I'd have another CT scan. If the spots were still present on the film, that would mean I had Paget's disease. That was the case. I had prostate cancer, too, but fortunately it had not metastasized. My Gleason score was 7, meaning my tumor was fairly fast growing. I was never officially staged, but based on those tests, I'd assume I had stage B or C cancer. I continued on combination hormone therapy, and also underwent external beam radiation therapy.

The hormone treatments had many unpleasant side effects. My sex drive diminished. I was impotent. My breasts swelled some. Brown spots developed on my bald head. I had to go to the hospital for 33 radiation beam treatments, each lasting three to five minutes. The procedure was painless. I went early in the morning, so it fit into my schedule.

To keep up my spirits, I used visualization techniques. Every time I received treatment, I visualized the hormones were planes dropping bombs on my tumor. I imagined the equipment used to irradiate my tumor as a machine gun firing at the disease to kill it. A positive mental attitude is important. Instead of saying, "I want to beat prostate cancer," I like to say, "I am beating prostate cancer."

After the radiation therapy ended, the doctor said he thought my prognosis was good. I had more side effects. The hormone therapy had diminished my need to urinate. After the hormones cleared my body, however, I passed gas often and I had trouble controlling my bowels. Every four or five months, I still have an unexpected and uncontrollable bowel movement. That is quite embarrassing. Now before I leave home each morning, I go to the bathroom. If I feel the slightest need to go to the bathroom, I do so immediately. (continued)

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