Happy Anniversary To Me

I realized yesterday, that Sunday was the 4 year anniversary of my RALP. After i got the pathology, i thought i was done with this. Little did i know... Never thought id be sitting here 4 years later waiting to find out if Salvage Radiation worked, while getting hot flashes from Lupron.

But it is what it is. PC has taught me a lot about life (so has this forum). The good, the bad, and the ugly. But mostly to just enjoy every day for what it is and spend as little time as possible thinking about what might be down the road. The only thing thats down the road for sure, is death. And ain't nothin' any of us can do about that, so why waste energy on it?
Anyway, I'm 4 years out, and the end isnt even close, at least not as it relates to this disease. For that, and for all the good help i got on this forum, i am grateful.

IF

BY RUDYARD KIPLING
(...his best, IMHO)

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

mattamx said...

Yep, we’re all going to die - it’s one of those inconvenient truths we tend to ignore. Perhaps we can be more at peace with cancer by keeping in mind that one thing or another is going to get us all.

+1

Once we accept the fact that either PCa or something else (probably heart) will eventually do us in, then much of the self absorption and rampant paranoia will subside.

"Happy" fourth anniversary Pratoman! Oddly, I was just talking with my wife yesterday about recurrence and mentioned that PCa generally seems to recur around five years. Let's hope that by then you've whipped this.

Congrats on reaching your milestone, and although you may be waiting and hoping, its sounds as if you are enjoying each and every day.

Congrats, Prato.

I was diagnosed about the same time as you and also met with Dr. Tewari, and would've gone with him if I decided to go with surgery.

Best of luck going forward

Congrats on the 4 year anniversary! You have given all of us a ton of useful information!

I hope and wish that this will the end of your disease as well !!!

JNF said...
So far so good Ken. You are staying on top of the disease and the SRT will either cure or push those rascals into the background for a long time.

Best wishes and Happy New Year. Go for a drive in the Mustang this morning topless!!

Thanks Jack. I feel more in control just by virtue of the fact that I don’t obsess anymore. Maybe I will if I recur again. But I have a feeling I won’t.

Mustang is awesome, I’m in love. But topless? I dunno, pretty ugly picture right now 😂😂😂🤩🤩🤩🤩

Thanks everyone for the positive comments.

Island Time... thanks man, we always said we were brothers from another mother. Or maybe it was me that said it. Because we are alike in many ways. I hope we both manage to remain at peace with this crap.

Rob, thanks Man, May we both end up whipping this thing forever. You sure deserve it, you’ve had it tough, I hope it’s all behind you

Andrew...thanks dude.

Everyone else, I appreciate the comments and the support over the years. It could have been a much rougher road without you guys and this place. I think we can all agree that’s the case for us all.

Ken, you and I came in here about the same time--and we had a lot of similar thoughts. I'm coming up on my 4 yr anniversary in a few weeks. It's been quite a journey.

Be at peace

Keep on keepin' on, good sir. Congrats on the anniversary, and may you observe many, many more of them.

It seems helpful to recognize these anniversaries. A friend of mine thinks it would be better to pretend all of this never happened, to forget the past, forget these milestones, these anniversaries. Unless one has had a cancer diagnosis, it seems impossible to understand how one can simply not forget, I live with treatment side effects daily, permanent physical changes that are a constant reminder. And recurrence is always possible; we can sometimes hear that dragon gently snoring in the distance. That thought lurks in the dark recesses of our minds, only exposed occasionally (scanxiety, for example).

In the meantime, enjoy every day! You're doing a great job of that. A nice ride in a sporty convertible sounds like fun right about now!

Prato, Happy New Year. I hope 2019 will be a good year with undetectable PSA. I think I have a future similar to yours, as you know my PSA started rising after 8 years and I may have to go thru the same salvage radiation and ADT, so, I'm very interested in your journey and learning from it. I appreciate you sharing your story with us. Best wishes

Keep on keeping on Ken.
Roger