garyi said...
Is it conceivable that a few brothers might be exaggerating a little bit???
Busted. Just like so many years ago when trying to pick up my future soul mate in the bars, watching their eyes glaze over as I wove a tale of manhood even Arnold would be proud of only to find when the rubber hit the road,their future prince charming was really a low life snake in the grass. So I signed up to this forum where everyone is accepted at face value even if some personal situations are "enhanced".
In December,2012, age 63, I was introduced to the the brotherhood of PC when my insurance company saw that on a routine blood test, my PSA had increased from the year before requiring me to see a Urologist. I had just finished my daily 3 hour cross country ski session and still had my ski clothing on. Walked into the office of the Urologist, looked around and saw the waiting room was full of old, bleary eyed, obese men who looked like they could barely stand up in snow let alone ski.
Go in to see the Uro, a young man who's practice was 100% PC due to so many retiries in the area. He gave me a DE and confirmed a lump on my prostate and then scheduled a biopsy which confirmed cancer and later that spring, RP. We talked a bit about
the disease but also about
the fact that because I was dressed to ski, how was the skiing. He also mentioned he had a condo up the hill and the fact his family alpine skied. We also talked about
MTB, road riding and of course alpine skiing, which is my first love.
Over the next months, meeting with my Uro, going into the hospital for surgery, post operation sessions with the Uro, regular yearly meetings and eventually radiation 5 years later, what stuck me so much were these waiting rooms full of what I thought were very unhealthy looking men waiting for their PC treatments.
My wife and I have made exercise a priority most of our married life and have passed this love of physical activity on to our boys and their families. I am not a trained athlete but my wife is and because we do so many things together, I get dragged along when she is training, just don't do as much high intensity.
The group we hang around range in age from 55-71 and except for knee and hip replacements, every one is pretty lean and fit with no dependency on pills to keep them alive and this is from daily exercise which includes some form of intensity.
I am saddened when I see so many men my age with this cruel disease, having let their bodies deterioate to the point where fighting off cancer cells or Covid viruses or other major diseases becomes truly life or death.
gary1: anytime you want something different than the same old stair master in your gym, come on over. A nice 5 hour chug up a mountain will keep those fuel lines
open.
Dave