Prostate Issues

Several years ago my prostate specific antigen (PSA) reading headed north of normal. The first time it happened my routine physical had followed  three days of long bike rides. Several weeks later blood-work indicated it was back to normal.  Before the second visit, I stayed off my bike for several days. The diagnosis was a benign prostate enlargement which meant I seldom slept all night without trips to the bathroom and  sometimes had difficulty completely emptying my bladder. Inconvenient, but a trade-off  I willingly endured to enjoy cycling. My mantra is the quote "I don't ride a bike to add days to my life, I ride to add life to my days."

Recently my PSA was again fairly high, and my doctor suggested seeing a urologist who suggested a prostate biopsy mainly to establish a baseline. I remember him saying if all 12 samples are benign, you might never see me again. A prostate biopsy is a pain in the ass both from a prep and procedure standpoint, but I decided to go through with it. 10 samples were benign, but two showed signs of cancer. On the Gleason score index one was 6, the other an 8. Several of the benign samples indicated simple inflammation which I suppose is from cycling.

Studies show that roughly one in seven men over 65 have prostate cancer. They also indicate that most men with prostate cancer usually die from something else sometimes many years later. I had three options: do nothing except wait and watch, radiation, or robotic surgical removal of my prostate. Radiation and surgery both come with lots of possible side effects/complications. I leaned towards surgery assuming CT and a complete bone scan indicated it had not metastasized.

Those procedures were negative (although a bone scan on someone 73 with 4 total joint replacements is an interesting side read), so I scheduled surgery for mid-June. The good news is I should be cancer free, and my step-son is coming from Phoenix to visit and help out for a few days. The bad news is not being able to cycle for up to 8 weeks. So I'll have to delay "adding life to my days" for a while, but sometimes trade offs are needed.

I also just had a consult with Andrew Johnston to get nutrition and exercise advice that will prepare me for not only pre-surgery but recovery post-surgery. The doctor gave me one exercise which I wasn't doing correctly. Andrew corrected that and filled my plate with lots of fundamentals. I am truly grateful to have Andrew as a friend and consultant.

Will Recycling Survive?

Recycling seems like a natural thing to do. I wonder though if it has caused us to become a "disposable" society? I believe the proliferation of plastic in our society is already a threat to our planet. Bottled water is one example. It seems more logical to simply invest in a filtration system and non-plastic containers. Another example are the plastic bags used by grocery stores. Clerks tend to use a separate bag for every other item, and if you ask them to put it all in one they want to double bag it. I think we are slowly drowning in plastic. If you doubt this look at what's happening to the world's oceans.

Currently there are doubts about how effective recycling will be since China and other countries who previously took our trash and made new products is no longer doing that. I also wonder how much of our recycling effort actually ends up in land fills? I've read several articles that suggest that is happening frequently since markets for this are disappearing.

I believe the best way to begin dealing with this is to charge for each plastic bag and bottle sold. Turning them back in would get a portion of the charge back, but not all. I I lived in Connecticut when they initiated a deposit on cans and bottles. Roadside litter just about disappeared over time. Maybe not a perfect solution but we need to start doing recycling disposing better if we want to preserve our environment