Week 195: w/ending 19th Feb

Facts and Figures Focus! One of the key aspects that has been shocking to me (and my wife) is the quantity of people attending cancer treatment specialists. Visiting one of those in the past couple of weeks was a true eye-opener, with the quantity of seats looking more like those you would find in a busy A&E department. From there, part of this journey has led me to look into some key figures around prostate cancer, which are:

• 50,000+ new cases annually, or around 150 men will be diagnosed daily
• Prostate cancer causes the death of 1 man per hour, every day
• Prostate cancer accounts for more than one-quarter of all new male cancer diagnosis
• Around 22% of those diagnosed will have a terminal prognosis
• The remaining 78% of those diagnosed, will survive for 10-years or more
• Over 400,000 men are currently dealing with prostate cancer
  

Whilst there are various symptoms that can indicate possible prostate cancer, for some of us affected, there are little or no symptoms. That is, in itself, concerning and does make the difference between some people who will survive and those of us that will not.

Due to close family health history, which did result in rapid and terminal decline, I was under the impression that I knew what to look for / monitor; that has proved to be an incorrect impression. I have zero insight into how long this has been working on me and therefore, at what point I may have picked it up and been diagnosed at a point where my prognosis may have been different.

One thing I think may be helpful, is to implore all of you who are reading this, who are male / were born with a prostate gland, is to seek an annual blood test and specifically ask for your PSA level to be checked. That level can be a good, regular check on whether something may be underlying / beginning to work on you. The test is a quick thing to do and it may save your life; it would be time well spent and can make a huge difference on the rest of your life and what you have planned for it. The risk in those aged 50 and above, is higher, but based on your own family health history, this may be younger, around age 45.

To finish off this update, an overview of the past week. It has been a week of ‘day to day’ focuses, around the day job and my core hobbies and other ventures. Those hobbies range from book writing / publishing to setting up a new business. Both of those have presented various challenges in the past couple of weeks, but also allowed us to see them move in the right direction. Those challenges have kept our minds focused, for most of the time, which has been good in itself, but the health situation has not escaped us.

At the end of last week / over the weekend, I felt overwhelmed and mentally / partly physically exhausted, from the impact of what the past month has brought. I do keep very busy and focused on positive aspects, so having that realisation and impact is another ‘new’ aspect that will undoubtedly continue to rear itself.

For now, thanks for reading and taking an interest; until next week.