When is a PCa anniversary?

I would be intersting to hear when you mark your PCa anniversary. For instance, I discovered I had PCa on May 15, 2008, began hormone therapy soon after, but for only two months, had syrgery on September 15, and concluded IMRT at the end of the following January. I guess any one of those could be my "anniversary". I've been using the date of surgery, but on further reflection, I've been in this battle from the moment I heard the "C" word. Thanks in advance for comments and I will try to create my first poll to keep track. Bill in San Diego

David, That makes sense. I'm going to change my "anniversary" to the day I learned I had it. And as you said, it was there probably a long time before that. Thanks, Bill

I use surgery date. I measure all my PSA's from surgery. But I remember the Friday afternoon at 3:30 the doctor called me and told me I had cancer....

Well explained Casey and I totally know this memory.

I wrote about it in the My Story portion of my online blog. I wrote it a year after the event, but it was in vivid detail. And I remember it today just that clearly. What my doctor said, when he walked into the examination room where my wife and I waited, was "Well you have a little cancer down there". It was December 19th 2006 at about 10:15am...

I do remember one other event from an appointment prior to that. That was when my PCP, after doing a routine physical a week earlier, told me on October 10th that we have a concern. He told me that my PSA was 19.8 in a blood test he prescribed. I was 44 years old and I had no idea what it was and I said "ok what does that mean?"... Well this was the first time I was introduced to a DRE... But what I remember most was as I started to walk out, he was not facing me and he told me to get back into the examination room. He said" I want another test, labs do make mistakes"... This was the first time I was nervously concerned...

Tony

I can still remember getting a call around 6:30 in the evening at home in my bedroom from my doctor and thinking...that's odd, doctors don't call here. I still remember my wife sitting on the bed looking at me and trying to understand the conversation from one side. A side that simply said, "uh huh, ok, oh, what does it mean, how bad is it, can I be cured?" Not a pleasant conversation for either of us. That was five years and one month ago. The time has gone by quickly but I know that "cancer" has been on my mind every day for over 1,820 straight days since that call.

Jim B

For me the date was June 26, 2009.

Easy day for me to remember, it was 2 days after my wife went into the hospital. I had just gotten off the phone with her and was preparing to go to see her. She had been telling me that over night her temp had spiked at 104 and they were working with it.

I barely hung up, maybe 2 minutes, when my Uro called. I believe I was spared the trauma that others experience when hearing they have cancer because I had been dealing with my wife's cancer since 2005. I just told the doc I didn't have time for my own cancer, I was too busy dealing with my wife's. The next day my wife went into respiratory failure and began what turned in to a 7 week stay in ICU.

So my anniversary date will always be easy to remember, but my own travel down the cancer path has not been as mentally draining as many of my brothers. From necessity mine has been treated almost matter-of-factly, had the surgery, had the radiation and now get on with the living.

So my answer for the poll is the date I got the call that I had it.

"Every day is a Bonus",

Sonny