Posted 7/18/2016 10:33 AM (GMT 0)
Cyclones post about JPENN starting me thinking, and remembering another of our brothers--and my father. So, I'm not sure where this is going to go, but here it is.
He would have been 90 on Saturday, July 16, except this disease took him from this world on October 18, 2004. I'm thinking about him now in particular because I'm at the place where his presence is strongest. He was born the son of millworkers in one of the major New England textile towns. Neither of his parents went past 8th grade in their educations--but they went to the library every week and were voracious readers.
He joined the Navy in the summer of '44 (it was volunteer or get drafted time), went through basic in upstate New York, and got posted to radio school in Chicago. He was at Navy Pier on VJ day and experienced the VJ day celebrations in the Loop. After a brief tour of duty, he was discharged in time to enroll at Northwestern for the class of 1950.
He majored in Organic Chemistry, received a Masters at Northwestern, met my mother, was married in 1952, and went on to receive his PhD at what was then Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. After a time at Duke University, he received a permanent teaching position at Baldwin-Wallace College in 1958, and taught there for the next 30+ years.
When PC hit in the early 90's (sorry, I don't remember which year, I think it was 1991, when he turned 65), PSA was just coming into common use. Again, I don't have the details. What I do know is that following his diagnosis, he applied his research mind, and chose to participate in the early use of whole-gland cryotherapy project at Cleveland Clinic. I recall from what he told me then, that he did it because of the opportunity to do something cutting edge, rather than submit to open surgery--which, as I recall, was still primarily the trans-perineal method.
He had what looked like amazing results from the cryotherapy. Within 6 months his PSA had hit nadir, a DRE indicated that his prostate was "gone". They traveled with Elderhostel, spending time in Asia Minor, Australia/New Zealand, and other spots. They spent several summers in England. He thoroughly enjoyed his granddaughters.
In about 2000, his PSA started back, and he went on HT. I think, again, at the time it was before Lupron, so he was on synthetic estrogen, one shot a month. That lasted a couple of years, then they found cancer growing on his Ureters. He had radiation treatments on that, finishing in the spring of 2004. Early that summer he took a fall and it appeared that he injured his tailbone. He had gradually worsening back pain all that summer, and in August that year he was found to have spinal mets. As I said at the heading, he passed in October that year.
When I look at his battle, I keep coming back to the reality that he chose the path he took, at least in part, because of the research angle. He wanted to be a pathfinder, a test subject. He knew, that even if things ultimately didn't turn out for the best, that the research had to be done, that the questions needed answers.
I wish I was that courageous.
One day this week, I'll stop off at the cemetery. He's in a small village graveyard here in Maine. On the back of the headstone is a quote from Chaucer, "The lyfe so short, the craft so long to lerne". RES--Father, teacher, researcher, renaissance man. He never stopped learning, or teaching.