Every Tuesday I try to peruse the NY Times for the articles in their Health & Science section. Many of the articles are written by prominent doctors or leaders in healthcare and the late, breaking medical news is always helpful too. There are columns about wellness, prevention, and nutrition as well as difficult cases written by MD's or personal experiences of the healthcare system written by patients. Lately I’ve been reading a very interesting series by a journalist who is being treated for prostate cancer. He writes openly about his experiences as a patient, and it is very revealing to read about cancer from a man’s perspective. He has had surgery as well as chemo, hormone therapy, and radiation, so he knows a thing or two about long treatment and side effects. He writes openly about how the hormone shots have killed his libido and how the surgery left him (sometimes) incontinent and (sometimes) unable to have sex (add hot flashes to that and I’d swear he was in menopause). Soon he will have his first real follow up blood test, the PSA, to see if his cancer is in remission.

He has written recently about all the doubt he feels, especially his doubt about the future and whether he will remain cancer free. Hopefully he'll get good news and then his cancer will take up less and less space in his life like mine has as it gets further from the last treatment. I spent a lot of time around men with prostate cancer when I was having radiation for my breast cancer in 2006. We were all sitting in the same hallway at the Radiation Oncology clinic waiting to receive our daily radiation treatments. One thing I noticed about the men is how little they interacted with each other. They were always talkative with me and any of the other women being treated (there was a elderly woman getting her colon cancer treated at the same time) but almost never with each other. It was like they were too embarassed to share all that they were going through with each other. I wondered then, and I wonder now, how much harder it must be to go it alone as they seemed to do. Me, I was happy to share my experience with anyone who asked, even the lady at Lowe’s who commented on my bald head (“yup, I have breast cancer and I’ll be done with treatment in July. Thanks for your concern…”) Once, I even had the conversation with a woman at one of the rest stops on I-40 who noticed my bald head and asked if I had breast cancer (“No, this time it’s leukemia but I’m doing well…) What’s my point? Don’t suffer in silence. Share your struggles with those who ask in concern. As a doctor, I am amazed how often people just want me to listen to them and validate what they are going through. I'm paid to listen, and I still get a kick out of that.

Later today we will drive up the mtn to Asheville for the w-e. Hopefully we'll get to see some pals and hike like we did last w-e. Today's photo is from the hike we did last week with Susan and Donna in the Pisgah area, the Slate Rock trail.