HEALTH

You Are Always One Doctor Visit Away From a Massive Change in Your Life

Suddenly everything can change

Around this time a year ago or so I was being dragged out of bed up to four times nightly because I had to pee. Obviously this was annoying and because my father died from spreading prostate cancer that he ignored too long, I made an appointment with a urologist.

After reviewing my recent blood work, the doc said it probably wasn’t prostate cancer because my PSA was 0.1, but you can’t always be sure, so he scheduled an ultrasound.

Shrug. Sure, no worries.

The ultrasound spotted cancer — not in my prostate, but in my bladder. It wasn’t a large cancer and a few weeks later my urologist went in with whatever tools they use and took it out. A few weeks of recovery because the operation and the dose of immunotherapy they pump into your bladder following the cutting really does knock you down. Then, three months later, a checkup to see if anything had grown back.

Nothing had. That’s good, right?

Ehh, not so fast. The doc said we’d check again in July, adding “If it comes back, that’s often after a year.”

Oh.