Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 3:01 am
Thank you all for your supportive comments. I was a little nervous posting this but I really wanted to stress the importance of the self-exams.
Trailblazer - thanks, Greg. Yeah, I had already gone thru all of this before I met you in 2003.
Snow Symph - I'm so glad everything turned out well (don't worry about that scar, it will fade and soon it will become just part of that wonderful person you are)
Krudler - best wishes for your wife's sister. If she'd ever like to talk to someone who's gone thru it, please feel free to give her my Email. (sometimes it's easier talking to a stranger about fears, etc. - we tend to feel the need to put up a "strong front" for family/friends).
Allyn - thanks! Looking forward to seeing you this summer!
Megan - Thanks... nice to see you on the board, also
Ya know, Dave...I've also been amazed about the huge success of the breast cancer awareness campaign. You're right - unfortunately there are so many types of cancer, and I'll admit I don't know that much about prostate cancer.
But I think the reason breast cancer awarenesss has got so much of the media attention is that women worked really hard to get it there. The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation has been working on raising awareness for over twenty years, as well as the American Cancer Society. Both these organizations sponsor walk-athons, marathons, and numerous other fund-raising events to raise awareness and funding for research.
Breast cancer is so frightening because not only have so many women died from it, but the treatments were so disfiguring for so long. "lumpectomies" have only recently started to become an option instead of a mastectomy. It was devastating for so many women, to have to go thru treatments, and then to have to deal with radical changes in their bodies that affected their very sexuality - how they saw themselves and and how they perceived their partners saw them. So, women banded together to do something so that their sisters, mothers, daughters, and friends would not have to go thru this. I am proud of what they/we accomplished.
Trailblazer - thanks, Greg. Yeah, I had already gone thru all of this before I met you in 2003.
Snow Symph - I'm so glad everything turned out well (don't worry about that scar, it will fade and soon it will become just part of that wonderful person you are)
Krudler - best wishes for your wife's sister. If she'd ever like to talk to someone who's gone thru it, please feel free to give her my Email. (sometimes it's easier talking to a stranger about fears, etc. - we tend to feel the need to put up a "strong front" for family/friends).
Allyn - thanks! Looking forward to seeing you this summer!
Megan - Thanks... nice to see you on the board, also
Ya know, Dave...I've also been amazed about the huge success of the breast cancer awareness campaign. You're right - unfortunately there are so many types of cancer, and I'll admit I don't know that much about prostate cancer.
But I think the reason breast cancer awarenesss has got so much of the media attention is that women worked really hard to get it there. The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation has been working on raising awareness for over twenty years, as well as the American Cancer Society. Both these organizations sponsor walk-athons, marathons, and numerous other fund-raising events to raise awareness and funding for research.
Breast cancer is so frightening because not only have so many women died from it, but the treatments were so disfiguring for so long. "lumpectomies" have only recently started to become an option instead of a mastectomy. It was devastating for so many women, to have to go thru treatments, and then to have to deal with radical changes in their bodies that affected their very sexuality - how they saw themselves and and how they perceived their partners saw them. So, women banded together to do something so that their sisters, mothers, daughters, and friends would not have to go thru this. I am proud of what they/we accomplished.
Not too many guys sit around discussing their Prostate exams, at least not that I am aware of! 
Women as a rule are much more likely to discuss these things, and therefore, as Rosabella has mentioned, formed a much more proactive support network. It's all about lobbying, when it comes to dealing with funding. What IS coming out is that many of the cancers share mechanisms that may be eventually attacked and defeated in similar fashion. Finally, for those really macho men out there, at least get a PSA test! Easy and cheap! 
