Back in the glory days of high school, my summers were spent between the pool, Silver Lake, and Brian Coles’ house. The days were filled with playing roof ball, ultimate frisbee, and volleyball with Brian, Dave and so many other friends from the neighborhood, from Pius, and Chamblee. The nights were spent at Brian’s house drinking Milwaukee’s Best, listening to Bruce Springsteen, and trying to kiss the next girl…not a care or responsibility in the world.
Some friends had summer jobs back then. I’m not exactly sure how several of us got away without having them. One friend, in particular, would spend his weekends during the school year and summer break doing yard work around his neighborhood. One afternoon Brian and I decided to write a song about Kif and his passion for landscaping…what unfolded over the next few hours was some pretty fun lyrics to the tune of Tom Petty’s 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨. We titled our song 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨.
Tom Petty has always been one of my favorite artists. I had tickets to go see him once at Lakewood but for whatever reason, I missed the show. Sure, I had many more chances to go see him…I guess I always thought that I’d go see him the next time he came through town.
Don’t wait on doing the things you love.
A month or so ago, I came back from a training run, and as I was getting ready to take a shower…I began to urinate blood…lots of it. I was as shocked as anyone would imagine. There were no signs, symptoms, or indications anything was wrong.
I made an appointment to see a urologist a few days later. After a quick friendly handshake with my doctor, it was determined that I had an enlarged prostate. Ok, not so bad…I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a few commercials about this on tv. So, out of an abundance of caution, we also scheduled a cystoscopy to take a good look at the inside of my kidneys, bladder, and prostate. The enlarged prostate was confirmed and, thankfully, everything else looked normal.
For a variety of possible reasons, my prostate did not take too kindly to the cystoscopy procedure. Over the next several weeks I was in and out of the urologist's office, the ER, and in and out of a catheter. I probably spent two to three weeks with a catheter in. For what it is worth, there is a whole catheter lifestyle out there that I was not aware of…clothes, accessories, catheter hacks. You too can even learn to “self-catheter.”
If you’re reading this, and you have a prostate, please go get checked. If you have prostate cancer in your family, check your PSA, check your Free PSA, and get a 4K test. At a minimum get your prostate checked annually. Please.
Over the past month, I have had the PSA, Free PSA, and the 4K. Over the past few weeks...I have had an MRI and a biopsy done of my prostate. And then comes the waiting.
The waiting is the hardest part.
Thankfully, my biopsy results were positive…in that, they came back mostly negative.
Thanks to everyone who has gone through the cancer journey, or one like it, and shared their experience, strength, and hope. You make it much easier for all those people who come behind you in the process. And for that, I love you.
To Kif – I hope you are well my friend. I hope you still mow your own lawn. Much love to you and your family!
Stay Tuned...or Don't