I’m not a doctor nor do I play one on T.V. or anywhere
else. I do know I would be dead if not
for a PSA. test. Yesterday the U.S.
Preventive Services Task Force [UPSTF] said that a PSA test causes more harm
than good. Really how can a test, a
simple blood test cause harm.
Let me back up more than 31 months ago. Back then my doctor was treating me for back
pain that was becoming excruciating pain.
I was sent to pain management specialists, MRI’s, Osteopaths, subjected
to a myriad of tests both common and rare, digital exam, acupuncture and I
think once a witch and shaman [whom at that time I trusted more than Western
medicine]. I was too young for prostate
cancer. I didn’t present any of the
usual symptoms of prostate cancer. I
didn’t fit the model. I was dying.
One day the pain was killing me, literally, and I called to
make yet another appointment only to find that my doctor was no longer with the
office and I was given a different doctor.
He X-rayed me and later as I sat looking at the X-rays waiting for his assessment
my laymen’s eye could deduce nothing structurally wrong in my spine which my
new Doc confirmed. He’d also taken more
blood for more tests. I wondered why
since it was just back pain, though excruciating, that we were trying to figure
out.
Before I could even get home that day from visiting my new
Doc I was called back in for an afternoon visit only to find out my PSA was
2640. [Normal is 1 to 5]
If the UPSTF had their way then and swayed the insurance
companies and doctors then I would be dead.
Dead! If you are curious scroll
back in my posts and take a look at my subsequent bone scans. My doctor would have never ordered a PSA.
It’s not the test. PSA
test is the only tool we men have against the number two cancer killer of
men. An elevated PSA isn’t a call to
action it is a call to thoughtful consideration. It is an opportunity to make informed
decisions.
What a PSA test isn’t, as the panel wants you to believe, is
an instant trip to chemical castration, removal of body parts, impotence,
urinary and bowel complications.
Please. If your car starts
spewing clouds of blue smoke do you immediately take it into your favorite
mechanic and say “pull the engine?”
If you fit the profile for prostate cancer do the test. It’s a needle and blood damn little of both. Then depending on the result make informed and
educated decisions. Simple and possibly
life saving.
241,740 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this
year. Probability says that a little
over 28,000 of those men will die from prostate cancer. Probability says I’m likely to be one of those
28,000 at some time. However, I’m in my
33 month of what statistically is a 24 month death sentence. A PSA test was the beginning.
Quoting Dr. Anthony D’Amico chief of Genitourinary Radiation
Oncology in today’s Wall Street Journal. “There’s a huge difference between
over-diagnosis and over treatment.”
Think about it. A
test killing you? What’s next PAP smears?
Talk to you later
GET TESTED
Well said!
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