Patients share the importance of advocating for themselves by seeking expert care, asking questions, understanding their diagnosis, and involving loved ones throughout the prostate cancer journey. They also emphasize maintaining a positive mindset, building a strong support system, and staying engaged in decisions that help achieve the best possible outcomes.
Michael Salvadore, Jr.:
Early intervention is key, and it's important to understand your family's history and to understand the predilection that your family's genetics may have to cancer in general. I think that if I were to go back, I wouldn't change anything. I wouldn't change the doctors that I chose. I wouldn't change where I chose to get treated. I wouldn't change what I chose to do. And I think that that's a result of being your own advocate, and the most important thing that anyone can do is to be their own advocate. If I had to go back and give myself advice, I would say, "Don't get it."
For any newly diagnosed patient, I would recommend that. Take a deep breath, keep your wits about you, approach it as a problem to be solved, and seek out the best care that you can get, regardless of where you have to go to get it. It's your life. It's your future. You need to be at a medical institution that can afford you all of the benefits that you need and that you should demand for yourself. I would say to relax and take it one step at a time, one day at a time. Stay off the internet. Watch out for voodoo doctors. There's a lot of misinformation on the internet. Focus on your medical professionals. Find the best professional for you, for your particular care that you need.
Rely on them and lean on them, and engage with them, and they will, in turn, return back to you the best care that they can give to you. I guess everyone deals with adversity on their own terms, and if I could give advice, I would say that don't deal with this adversity in isolation. And I've discussed it with my family. We talk about it. It was all we talked about at the beginning. My professional colleagues all know. It's not a secret that I keep. For me, it's helped reinforce my defiance that I won't back down. I think of that Tom Petty song all the time, and it's helped gain the support of other people.
And it's your mental health, and the attitude that you take is one of the most important medical things that you can do for yourself. I don't know what the right word is, but your positive mental attitude can make a difference. And I believe, for me, that having a positive mental attitude is what's kept me going for 14 years. And your positive mental attitude, your faith in your doctors, your faith in general, and just the belief that you got the right people and they're going to do right by you.
Steven Daniel:
You have to surround yourself with people who care about you and who will support you and help you out. And not every person in your circle is going to be able to do... Some people may be willing to drive, and some people may be willing to drop off food. Some people may just want to take you to coffee and find out. Some people may want to take you shopping. So your circle of friends, each of them has a strength and capitalize on that strength, but you should surround yourself with people who care for you and who's going to support you through the journey. Get the best care you can.
I'm very fortunate because I'm at Northwestern, so get the very best care you can. Be open to other therapies, whether that be eating organic foods, seeing a acupuncturist, getting massages, self-care. My therapist said, "You have to take care of yourself. You have to get up every day. You have to take a shower. Maybe you go get a manicure, you get a pedicure, make sure you're getting a haircut." Your hair may fall out. Mine started to get patchy. And of course, I just turned it into a fashion statement and just shaved my head, which I did today just for today's show. Look for the positive things. Be grateful for what you have every day in your life.
Phillip Lavender:
I've had... People from all sectors of the country have heard about my diagnosis with prostate cancer, and they've asked some of my opinion, and my opinion is that you have to make the final decision of what you want to do, but there are a lot of treatments out there for prostate cancer. It's a disease that is curable, or you can work around it. So it's a part of you being a man and in life. But understand your diagnosis and get all the information you can about it.
Again, like I said, I went and got second opinions and make sure that you understand what's going on. Understand the numbers. The numbers are very, very important. They're there for a reason and ask questions. Don't be scared to ask questions and find you a support group. There are things across the country that you can go ask for support on from an educational standpoint. Don't just wait. Make some kind of action. And if you wait, have the knowledge and knowing what you're waiting for and how it affects you. So you get educated about it.
Bennie Johnson, Jr.:
So I tell everyone that I know, all of my guys that are having this problem to call Dr. King and speak with her. She's very professional. Don't get excited when she walks into the room because she knows her job. And from that point on, I've been... like I said, everything has been going uphill. I've spoken with five or six men that Dr. King... of her patients. And I tell them that, "It's important to know what you're going into in the beginning. Dr. King can explain everything to you.
But as far as getting the process done, you must speak with your wife first, your significant other. You have to do that because if everyone is on the same page, it makes it a lot easier." One of the guys said, "Do my wife have to know? Why don't she just feel like I just rejuvenated myself?" I said, "It doesn't work that way. Because when Dr. King explained these things to you, you're going to have to have a nurse to come to the house to help you out for a week or so, and all your wife is going to know this. Okay."
So I let them know that Dr. King, once she speak with them, like she spoke with me, I'm sure they'd be very comfortable [inaudible 00:08:57] when every PSA is different in the count, but I feel that they should take whatever advice that the doctor gives and go with that to save their life because I've known a lot of people that have had the situation with the PSA and they decided not to go to the doctor and a few years later they're no longer here. So get checked.