One year anniversary

Realized when I woke up this morning, today is the one year anniversary of my DX. Call came at 5:20 pm just about four business days after my biopsy.

I knew when I saw the caller ID, the calendar and the clock, this wasn't going to be good news.

Anyhow to any newbies reading this, I had robotic surgery app 3 months after DX and now being nine months post op I'm doing "almost" everything I used to before surgery & DX.

Rich

Rich, congratulations on the good outcome. That year went by quickly, I bet.

My diagnosis came by phone, at work, the day after the Bx. Uro called, asked if I was ok from biopsy, any side effects, etc., and I said everything's normal.

Then he said, "So, do you have a few minutes we can talk about the results?". My heart about stopped; this wasn't going to be good news. I grabbed a piece of paper from a copier, found a conference room, closed the door, and had my life changed. It wasn't good news.

I'm not sure that it would have been easier to take face-to-face, or not.

Doing fine now, though. The first couple of weeks were the worst, for sure.

I got THE CALL two days after my biopsy. That's a LOT better than waiting 7-14 days for an appointment.

When the doctor called, she started with small talk. I KNEW then that it was going to be bad news. Otherwise, I figure she would start off with "I have good news...!"

Mel

Sort of brings up a somewhat related and perhaps interesting question. Exactly how did your uro break the news to you, using what kind of words?

In December 2011, when I met with my own uro face-to-face in one of his exam rooms, he said simply, "Well, it looks like you do have a little bit of cancer in there." Followed by my shock, of course.

To the point, factual, simple. In retrospect I get the impression that it might have been a standard phrase that he would use with some of his patients, while there were other standard phrases that he would use with others, depending on how he thought a particular patient would receive the news.

But exactly how do you tell someone he has cancer, anyway?

"It would seem that there is a certain biological irregularity developing within you. Please allow me to elaborate"

"The numerical result value of the definitive test that was administered to you indicates a statistical anomaly regarding normalcy."

"You got cancer. Sorry, buddy."

Maybe there's a course in med school devoted to how best to word the giving of bad news to a patient, what to say and what not to.

Might be interesting to invite posts here on the wording that was used in our individual cases, when we were told the news, and exactly how, but it might be pointless. That's because I strongly suspect that the shock that hit most of us upon hearing the "C" word entirely obliterated any memory of exactly what had just been said.

My uro said something pretty close to this:

"Unfortunately, the biopsy results came back positive, Gleason 9 in all 6 positive cores, Blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah....".

At least that's what I seem to remember hearing. Actually didn't use the C word that I recall, though maybe he did. The meaning was quite clear anyway.