RADICAL PROSTATECTOMY: ONE MAN’S STORY

It was just a routine physical—until Peter Weaver’s* doctor found a lump in his prostate.

“I went in to the doctor’s office sort of full of myself,” recalls Weaver, who was 63 at the time. “I felt in great shape, I was jogging every day, doing some weights, eating well and having a good married life.” He was stunned when his doctor found the lump. “I was sort of insulted, like, ‘Me? This can’t happen to meV I had absolutely ZERO symptoms—no urinary problems, no aches, no pains, no sign of anything. It was a hidden time bomb, ticking away.” The nodule was tiny, but a needle biopsy and transrectal ultrasound confirmed that it was cancerous—and “very operable.”

Weaver, a syndicated financial columnist living in Washington, D.C., is a reporter, and he explored his treatment options just as he would research a story—chasing leads, talking to experts, putting himself in charge of getting the facts. After exploring every option, he decided to undergo surgery. His next step was to ask around until he was confident he’d found the best surgeon.

“It’s a major operation,” Weaver says. “I was in the hospital nine or ten days. (Today, most patients stay in the hospital only four or five days.) I went home with a catheter for urine for another two to three weeks.” He had some trouble with incontinence for several months, and his sex life was disrupted for a few weeks. After about a year, he was back to normal.

That was five years ago. Now, he says proudly, his PSA tests have been “absolutely, totally normal.” Several times a week, he runs three miles and works out with weights. He joined an athletic club. “My cholesterol’s 155. The HDL (high-density lipoproteins) cholesterol is 45-50. The combination, my doctor says, is just perfect. I have a pulse of 60-64, a blood pressure of 120 over 80. I feel great.”

For the last several years, Weaver has become involved in a prostate cancer support group. He has spoken and written about his experiences, and he has some advice for men in his situation.

First, he says, get a second opinion, and even a third. If you don’t like what a doctor has to say—the doctor’s success rate with impotence and incontinence, for example—”scratch his name off your list.”

Ask your doctor as many questions as you need to, so you’ll be prepared for the complications of surgery that will surely come. Because soon after surgery—if you’re not expecting these complications—they can be overwhelming, he says: “You can’t get an erection, you’re leaking urine in your pants. From youth onward, you’re made to feel that these are some of the worst possible things that can happen to a man.” Even though the impotence and incontinence were only temporary for Weaver, they still affected his quality of life for months.

And know, too, that if impotence and incontinence don’t go away, there is help, he says: “They’ve got medications, injections and devices available now that are incredible—that could give a cigar store Indian an erection!”

Weaver’s last bit of advice for men? “Have a checkup every year, with the most experienced urologist you can find. Get a PSA test and digital exam. Take charge—be responsible for your own health.” After all, “it’s your body. You’ve got to look after it.”

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