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Posted 11/22/2011 12:15 PM (GMT 0)
Hello all,

The 7:30 report is one of the most respected daily current affairs TV shows in Australia and they are doing a piece on prostate cancer.

My husband's surgeon phoned up my husband yesterday to get him to be interviewed and my husband agreed. The show is as I understand it to be about raising awareness of prostate cancer and about the cost benefit of open vs robotic.

As you know, my husband leaves me to research all things PCa so I am so proud that he is willing to talk about this in such a public way. He is waiting to hear back from the show.

Regards,
An
Posted 11/22/2011 12:28 PM (GMT 0)
An

Wow that is great, your hubby on a TV show like that.

I'm not sure if I would have the guts to do that.

Bud
Posted 11/22/2011 1:00 PM (GMT 0)
Cool.
Posted 11/22/2011 7:29 PM (GMT 0)
That's great An, can't wait to see it, please let us know when..........
Cheers Kev.
Posted 11/22/2011 7:39 PM (GMT 0)
congratulations, An, to your husband. Now he can have his 15 minutes of fame on the TV. If you remember, I got that opportunity earlier in the year on 2 networks. You got to grab these rare moments to help promote PC awareness

david
Posted 11/23/2011 12:33 AM (GMT 0)
I will let you know Kev!

David, yes it's important to grab the opportunities. You are quite vocal about PCa through this website and recent interviews but my husband doesn't talk all that much about it. Which is why it's pretty amazing that he agreed.

An
Posted 11/24/2011 5:37 AM (GMT 0)
Whoa! Nearly missed your post An. Make sure to let us know when it's on. Your husband's input will be great and it will be interesting to see what is said re. cost analysis.
Bill
Posted 11/24/2011 8:01 AM (GMT 0)
Great news. Brave guy too - I feel awkward just being on home movies. Hope it helps raise the profile.

(My hospital has been involved in a whole TV series about cancer on one of the main Dutch networks, but there's yet to be anything about PCa on it.)
The series is called "Over Leven met Kanker" which means about Life with Cancer, but the title is a pun as "Overleven met Kanker" means Surving with Cancer.
See programma.ntr.nl/10503/over-leven-met-kanker

Alf
Posted 11/24/2011 12:09 PM (GMT 0)
It turns out that the camera crew will be at our house for a few hours and unfortunately for me, they want to shoot me as well. Alf, I am like you, I hate public speaking, cameras, attention, eyes on me and I can't think of any reason that would persuade me to do this except to support my husband when it comes to dealing with prostate cancer.

The segment is largely about open versus robotic.

Next Tuesday is DDay.

An
Posted 11/24/2011 1:49 PM (GMT 0)
An - good luck to both of you. I'm okay with public speaking etc (I was chair of a resident's association for over 10 years, and even managed to deliver the eulogy for my Mum's funeral to a packed church) my problem is with what I think I sound like and look like on a recording. But you need a degree of stage fright too to make you concentrate on doing a good job.
Try to speak slowly. (the very eloquent Stephen Fry had to have elocution classes at school to stop him talking too fast) Try saying this aloud a few times:
"The humming of innumerable bees in the immemorial elms."
or
plays.about.com/od/actvities/a/enunciation.htm

Don't try saying this:
“The prognosis for prostate cancer patients depends on positive news from the pathologist post laproscopic robot assisted prostatectomy and a progression of satisfactory prostate-specific-antigen tests thereafter.”

Alf
Posted 11/24/2011 10:01 PM (GMT 0)
Hi An,

What great news! Do indeed let us know when its on (scheduled), and we will all tune in. I might have a toast to you while watching. Good luck to you both...and try to stay calm! Look forward to seeing it. cheers, Lana & CJ tongue

Posted 11/24/2011 10:57 PM (GMT 0)
An

Please let me know when it's on.
Posted Yesterday 8:32 AM (GMT 0)
An, today is the day the film crew will be out, right?  I wish both you and your husband the best with the interview!  I am wondering if they will ask some sort of question about ED and your "love life"?  Now, I might be hestitant about talking to the TV crew on that topic! yeah   Please let us know how things turned out.

Hugs,

Aimzee

Posted Yesterday 9:59 AM (GMT 0)
Oh my god. That was the most difficult thing ever. Three intense hours of questions, rearranging the furniture, setting up lights.

They had us walking on a walking train in the national forest near our house, I guess to make us human.

Then they had us going through our research. They picked the backdrop of our kitchen for most of it as it's the most homely part of our house.

Its all going to be edited down to a seven minute segment. Of which we will be on for 3-4 minutes. We decided that we were going to be pretty open about prostate cancer and we were. We went through the diagnosis, the reaserch, the choice of da vinci surgery, the side effects. Paul was asked the obligatory question about potency. It was draining and tough and will be on air in two weeks or so.

The reason for the program is a blind study in Queensland Australia, just starting, where four hundred patients will be assigned randomly to either a very experienced open surgeon or a very experienced Da Vinci surgeon. The results on the trifecta (cure, continence and ED) and a full cost benefit analysis is planned to compare both surgeries. According to the producer, this is one of the first studies of its type in the world. We are meant to be the human face of prostate surgery in this story.

Regards,
An
Posted Yesterday 11:34 AM (GMT 0)
Oh my goodness, An!  You have joined David as a visual "aid" in the battle against PCa.  All that time for such a short segment, but I imagine that it will be powerful.  Did you mention the support you received from HealingWell.com?  Thank you for giving us so much information.  I am curious as to what variables will be used in the study?  It needs to be balanced and PSA would be one variable, as well as age.  What is the length of the study?

To be honest, if Ron was involved in the study and what I know now, I would want him to be placed in the daVinci group.

Thank you for bringing us up-to-date.  I wonder if we will be able to view it in much the same way as we saw David's segment?  I know it was intense, but you and your husband can be a help to others, and saving lives!!

I am involved in a national Cancer study involving over 100,000 particpants.  It is an ongoing study, and I didn't get involved until I turned 55 years old.  These are so valuable!

Much blessings,

Aimzee

Post Edited (Aimzee) : 11/29/2011 6:12:20 AM (GMT-7)

Posted Yesterday 12:17 PM (GMT 0)
The study you are involved in sounds very valuable. Getting data from that many people should provide interesting results.

Yes, it will be posted on the web, and once it is I will post it here.

An

Ps: that interview really took it out of me. I feel so very tired.
Posted Yesterday 12:58 PM (GMT 0)
An, I think if you and Paul were prepared ahead of time for what would happen, it might have been easier. You know, having to relive the expereince so deeply was bound to take its toll. It's not like you could write a few pages and walk away. I hope the interviewer was nice to you. Also, I hope you will have the opportunity to rest - and relax!
Alf, your post had me laughing! I had some dental work done and am missing a few teeth. I couldn't say all those things - and public speaking doesn't really scare me. However, doing what An did might cause me to shake in my boots!

Ron wasn't a participant in the study. Looking back now, I wish he had been.
Posted Yesterday 2:11 PM (GMT 0)
An

Terrific! I applaud you and your hubby for doing the TV interview

Show both the guy and his partner in this PCa together.

Would you have a link where we could watch the segment?

Bud
Posted Yesterday 11:10 PM (GMT 0)
Hi An

I am a participant of the study to which you refer, so I will be interested in seeing the program.

As you live in Sydney is your husband also in the study?
Posted Today 1:50 AM (GMT 0)
No my husband had his surgery last year and chose the robot.
A lot of the questions were around why he did so.

Aimzee, the interviewer was a lovely lady but she was obviously focussed on asking the same question several times so that she had a set of answers she could choose from.

Bud, as soon as I have a link I will post it.

Regards,
An
Posted Today 5:40 AM (GMT 0)
An, I think understand this type of interview.  I am glad she was nice - that helps a bit!  I look forward to seeing whatever they decided to use for the show!  Was Paul relatively calm?

Please, please accept my apology for hijacking your thread!  I am so sorry.  The study I am involved with IS very important, and since you responded, I wanted to give the proper information.  I got in at the very last year, so I am one of the youngest participants.  I was in for 6 years, and not am in the follow-up period.  These four cancers take a lot of lives each year.  Hopefully, knowledge will be passed to others.  I hope I have helped someone by passing this along.  I also thought maybe one of our guys or gals are in the PCLO Cancer Study through the Cancer Association.

I would love to visit Australia some day.  That is something on my "Bucket List"!!

Blessings to you,

Aimzee

Posted Today 6:42 AM (GMT 0)
Hello An
haven't been on here much lately just saw this thread, congratulations on you and Paul's courage to face the camera, well done. The ABC 7.30 report is the best news/current affairs show in Australia without doubt, I'm sure it will have a huge audience and it is a great study, so it will be followed up on the show as well. Looking forward to watching it.
I wonder though if it will make a difference? if it clearly shows there is a marked cost benefit? or costs more but better outcomes? will it spark the Governments both State and Federal to get more robots in hospitals, or will they leave it to the private sector? will it cause longer waiting times at places with Robots? I will feel ripped of if it shows better outcomes with open anyway Prof Stricker must think it has a cost benefit and or better outcomes on the trifecta, I suppose.
Anyway very interesting indeed and thankyou
Posted Today 8:20 AM (GMT 0)
WELL DONE (sounds like you had a bust time)

Hopefully the network itself will arrange for the report to be available on-line as well as just live on TV in OZ.

Alf
Posted Today 11:32 AM (GMT 0)
Aimzee,

The study you are in is terribly important. It's good that you volunteered to join it. The results will be so interesting. Yes Paul was relatively calm, but the whole thing was quite stressful so it wore him out too.

Ausboy, I know what you are saying, but if it turns out the results are identical then the cost question does come in. I personally would like to know what the answer is.

It will be on line Alf, I wait for the day with trepidation.

An

Post Edited (An38) : 11/30/2011 4:37:29 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 12/1/2011 9:50 AM (GMT 0)
Thank you, An!

Ozbob, I think that's great that you are participating in the study!

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