It's been true since before I started this blog, but I don't seem to
have mentioned it before. I got my diagnosis of prostate cancer
three years ago this month: May, 2004. I had a prostatectomy
(surgery to remove the prostate gland) toward the end of July of that
year. (Missed my niece's wedding in California, which happened a
couple of days before the operation.)
The results of my PSA (prostate-specific antigen) tests went to
"undetectable" soon afterwards, which is the best available indication
that the cancer is, in fact, cured. Strictly speaking, though,
one never can be absolutely sure of that; it becomes certain for all
practical purposes only about ten years after the operation, assuming
the PSA results don't change.
I do live my life on the assumption that prostate cancer is
not going to kill me. And so I can (and do) count myself
as lucky. Not as one of the luckiest of survivors, though, in that I still have some side effects, urinary and sexual, from the
operation. I'm still working on those.
Though I no longer feel as if my life is in danger from this disease,
it has also led to a permanent change in my outlook: I am not likely
to forget again that you never know. At any time, something may
come along which threatens, at least, to kill you.
I'm sure that that made me a lot less willing to slog along in a job
environment that I had come to hate, just waiting until I was sure
that I was financially ready to retire. And so, my cancer
experience is probably part of the explanation of how I came to retire
when I did, last June, when I was not at all sure that I was
financially ready.
Categorie(s) for this post include:
About me;
Retirement.
4:38:40 PM 
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