How much did Prostate Cancer change you?

We all know about the side effects, the fear of recurrence, etc...

How about in the realm of diet and exercise? One of the things I've done is change my diet. One of the quirky changes is I haven't had a morsel of food prepared in a microwave since I was diagnosed back in July. If you'd told me 6 months ago I wouldn't ever eat food prepared in a microwave, again, I would've thought I'd starve to death. I've had next to no red meat which I used to LOVE. I'm trying to watch my sugar intake but slipped a bit around the holiday. I hope to get back to my pre op diet of nothing but naturally occurring foods. I ate a bunch of almonds, fruits and vegetables. I also used to drink a lot of distilled water out of plastic jugs. No more water out of plastic jugs and no more distilled water. Going for an alkaline body not acidic. Cancer came to invade and I want to do things to make it's return much less hospitable.

How about your faith? If you were a person of faith before did it strengthen your faith or weaken it? If you had no faith, did it make you believe?

For me, it deepened my faith. Never believed more and felt presence during my trial. (If spiritual topics are forbidden, please delete, with my apology)

Sadly, my commitment to the above was much stronger when I was pre-surgery. I endeavor to get back to what I was doing before my surgery. I just read a piece on a non-inflammatory diet and it's effect on cancer cells. Seems cancer doesn't care for a body that is doing everything to reduce inflammation.

Here's hoping we all make the lasting changes best for us.

Having my prostate yanked out robotically hasn't changed my life very much physically, mentally and sexually. I don't dwell on the fact that someday cancer might pop its ugly head back into my life. If and when it does, I will deal with it.

PCa didn't "change" me, really.

Due to PCa, I finally got around to organizing my estate (will, power of attorney, living will, etc), since I finally realized that I'm not going to live forever.

I always led a healthy lifestyle (1-2 hours in the gym 4-6 days per week, and eat right). PCa gave me a bit more motivation in the gym to work even harder. I'm now literally the most fit I've been in my entire life (9 months post-surgery). I weigh less, bench-press more, can do more consecutive push-ups (40), and have a lower resting heart rate (60 bpm) than I did when I graduated high school.

-Gedman

My wife says my diagnosis has definitely loosened my wallet and I guess she is right in that respect. I eat better and exercise more than I did before cancer, but much of that is because of retirement more than a diagnosis. I have done very well and so far--have the trifecta, but I would be a liar if I didn't confess that I think about it to varying degrees almost every day. Can you tell I have my two year PSA coming up in February?

Tom

I was very moved by this prior to knowing how my surgery would go... I still like it now.

Bill Hemmer: "You said cancer changes your life, and oftentimes for the better."
Joel Siegel: "Yes.... Gilda Radner... said this in her book. What cancer does is, it forces you to focus, to prioritize, and you learn what's important. I mean, I don't sweat the small stuff. I used to get angry at cab drivers. It's not worth it.... And when somebody says you have cancer, you realize it's all small stuff. And what Gilda said is, if it weren't for the downside, everyone would want to have it. But there is a downside."
~American Morning, CNN, 13 June 2003

---The gift of perspective is one that will keep on giving every day for the rest of my life. Death moved out of the abstract. I don't think you really live until you really contemplate death and through this process death became a real thing not just something that would happen someday. I truly enjoyed the experience. It gave far more than it took.

Funny you posted this. I am one of the people that feel it has ruined my life in more ways than I can count.

The side effects have completely destroyed my sex life, not to mention I love wetting myself during sex and not during sex. I suffer daily urethral pain to the point that if I didn't have kids I might consider not hanging around anymore. Every single activity in my life has changed for the worse.

It completely destroyed any faith I had. It's all gone. I am an atheist now.

Whoever said "Cancer is the best thing that ever happened to me" is a BS artist. It's always better not to have or have had cancer.

Did I mention how fun it is to date and always have to have the "C" conversation with the other person. Not to mention there is very little chance of intimacy. And I don't care what anyone says, it's important to women and it is a deal breaker most of the time and I don't blame them.

If I could do it all over again even at 42 I probably would not have had the surgery.

Wow what a question! The only thing this trip hasn't changed is my faith, but why should it? Everything else has changed to the negative side, sex, finances, all bathroom habits, oh and did I say sex? And I have never regained my energy back.

Then again there are those who have it worse.

As a man/women thinketh, so they are. I agree with clocknut. Folks proselytize all the time on this forum, but if its about a power higher that yourself, more specifically, if you name that power, its verboten. Lord{ oops }, knows its exclusion on the forum has nothing to do with stopping verbal brawls. Im sure I do not need to point that out to anyone who has been here while. Even the host of the house has his own religion, and blogs about it repeatedly. All his revelations from mindfulness to coping to a 10step program to the many a of his awakenings that pop up from time to time are all borrowed from the worlds religions. Smacks of hypocrisy at worst to plagiarism at least. When I host folks in my house, I usually step into the parlor, now and then. How about you? If the post offends its cogent.

I didn't change my eating habits, I always had a reasonable diet that included lots of fruits. I increased my exercise and lost about 7 pounds in 5 years (not much). The only permanent change in my life is ED due to the removal of the nerve bundles.

At first, I was quite upset and had some very negative thoughts. Now I've just basically settled into the new lifestyle and it doesn't affect me too much.

I've changed my diet to mostly the one recommended by Dean Ornish - with a little cheating here and there. The hardest part was not so much the change of diet as not feeling part of the normal world. I wasn't very overweight but I lost 15 lbs. My cholesterol had been borderline high and now it is back to a normal range.

Additionally - areas of my life that have been influenced:

- I try to put even more emphasis on exercising and keeping in shape.

- I try to live every day to it's fullest - much harder than I thought with the stresses of daily life but I still try.

- I try to not put enjoyable experiences off to tomorrow as much as I used to. eg. travel/vacations/going out to dinner.

- I decided to put my new-found empathy for those going through illness by volunteering with palliative care patients.

- I try to be a better father and husband. However, to be honest, I'm not sure that this cancer experience has brought my wife and I closer together and may even have had slightly the opposite effect. (Although maybe this is more due to her experiencing menopause than me experiencing cancer.)

- I finish each day contemplating 5 things that I am thankful for.

Clock,

You'll remember that I respect you opinions such that without so much as a personal meeting or phone call, I've asked if you might consider being a mod.

That said, how can any religious conversation end well here? We have respected members who are agnostic and of non-christian religions, Every mention of what one believes could be (and will likely be ) perceived as a vicious and malicious attack against others. Thus Peter's rule. You can make brief and heartfelt comments, but the rest, which the OP solicits, can easily blow over the line. We have to respect the beliefs of others, regardless of our own. Life in an international environment is different from getting along at the local hometown barbershop. Much of what I believe can't be said here, and I accept that, knowing the environment.

PCa is our common enemy. The rest is not for this board, as I see it.

I have changed radically for the better and I like to think much less for the worse...I wont hold your interest if I went into detail but I realized I am still coming to terms with how the changes in me changed my life. The consequences from decisions I made because I had cancer are devastating. I don't blame cancer or anyone...taking responsibility for me after 5 years with aggressive cancer with no cure is harder than cancer itself. The kicker is I was always thinking my decisions were the right decisions, I repeat, I thought they were the best course for me and those closest to me. Now I am trying to fix my life more than simply living my life....

Like most, I did not want cancer to change my life. That is why I chose a treatment that I thought would give me the chance to live as I always have. I am ever grateful how it has turned out for me. I was a bit of a mental mess before I decided on my course of action. Now I try to live every day harder than the one before. While I would like to live a long life, it is far more important for me to live every day of my life.