{"id":45112,"date":"2019-10-21T13:16:43","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T17:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=45112"},"modified":"2019-10-21T13:17:12","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T17:17:12","slug":"my-prostate-and-thyroid-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2019\/10\/my-prostate-and-thyroid-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"My Prostate and Thyroid Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dr. Glenn Mollette\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I never wanted cancer – who does? Within four months I was\ndiagnosed with thyroid cancer and prostate cancer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last October 26, my entire thyroid was removed with four\nmalignant nodules. I dreaded that surgery because I knew speech and singing\ncomplications could happen because of the proximity of the thyroid to the vocal\ncords. Some people end up with paralyzed vocal cords for a lifetime. The\nsurgeon assured me he would take his time and utilize extreme caution in\nprotecting my vocal cords but reminded me that the cancer had to be the\npriority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the middle of December 2018 my voice was gaining strength\nand I was starting to exercise a little bit and was overall feeling good. I\nthen had my annual blood work done. The telephone call came from my doctor’s\nnurse telling me everything looked good except my PSA was 4.7. This was the\nhighest it had ever been in my life. The prior year had been 3.7. I was told\nthat PSA numbers can sometimes fluctuate and that we would need to do another\nblood test. Three weeks later I did another one on December 27 and found out my\nscore had risen to 5.9. I called my wife who was visiting in Kentucky to tell\nher, “I’m in trouble.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We decided to act immediately, however, finding a urologist\nduring the Christmas holidays was difficult. I tried six or seven in Evansville,\nIndiana and Louisville, Kentucky. I ended up finding a doctor named David Levy\nfrom Cleveland Clinic. His receptionist said, “He has one opening December\n31st, at 2:30.” I explained to her my diagnosis and she explained the only\nway you and the doctor will know is by a prostate biopsy.” I already had\nheard fearful reports about prostate biopsies. She very calmly assured me that\nhe had a very gentle technique, and few ever complained. I booked the\nappointment. I hung up and called my wife back to tell her how we would be\ncelebrating New Year’s Eve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Year’s Eve I met Dr. Levy and he spent quite a bit of\ntime asking me questions and explained we won’t know anything until I do the\nbiopsy. They got me ready and he removed 18 pieces of my prostate, one small\nsample at a time. Almost every time he would remove a piece he would say,\n“Did you feel that?” And every time I said, “Yea, I felt\nit!!”  At that moment that’s not really what I wanted to say\nhowever, somehow by the grace of God I managed to control my mouth. Levy would\nlater explain that often many urologists only take 12 samples, but they miss\nthe cancer by taking too few. “If it’s in there we need to find it,”\nhe explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I walked out of the Urologist’s office a little sore but was\nable to drive back to our hotel where I managed to eat dinner and we later\nfound a movie on television that I halfway watched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On January 4, 7:30 in the morning my cell phone was ringing,\nand I braced myself as I knew it was Dr. Levy. He began by asking me how I was\ndoing today, and I said, “Dr. Levy, go ahead and tell me the report.”\n“You have two cancers out of 18 samples he reported. One cancer is a 3+3\nfor a Gleason score of six which is not too bad. However, you have one that is\na 3+4 for a Gleason score of 7 or stage 2 cancer which is very concerning. We\ncan monitor and do active surveillance, or we can do a procedure. I don’t\nrecommend surgery for you, but I do recommend either cryotherapy (freeze\ntreatment) or Brachytherapy (radiation seed implant). However, I need to do an\nMRI and it will be 10 weeks before your prostate will be healed enough to do an\naccurate MRI. The MRI will show us more if the cancer is spread or if it’s\nstill contained in the prostate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next ten weeks were agony as I read everything I could\nfind about cancer, treatments, supplements, procedures, side effects, nutrition\nall mixed with worry. I watched my dear friend die a slow death from prostate\ncancer just a couple of years ago, so I know prostate cancer can be\ndeadly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March I had an MRI and found out the cancer was still\ncontained to the prostate. I elected to do the Brachytherapy radiation seed\nimplant procedure by Dr. Jay Ciezki of Cleveland Clinic who does over 300\nprocedures a year. Years ago, my father-in-law had the procedure done and so I\nwas already a little familiar with it. After the procedure I never stopped\nwalking, working or trying to be active but for a month I was sore and there\nwere side effects, but they weren’t unbearable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, the new blood work revealed my PSA is now .71. The\nlowest it’s ever been in my life. I still have my prostate which will make PSA.\n“Everything” is working well. I am back to jogging a couple of miles,\nworking and overall things are normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing that has changed is my awareness and\nrespect…fear of cancer. Cancer can and does recur. My radiation oncologist\ndoesn’t think I’ll ever have it in my prostate again, but he said there’s\nalways a chance it can show up somewhere else later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will have to give my urologist Dr. Levy, credit for laying\nout in detail everything I should and should not eat for the rest of my life\nplus an array of vitamin supplements he strongly suggested I take every\nday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I feel great today, I know my fortunate outcomes are\nby God’s grace and the decision to move forward with two surgeries as soon as\npossible. I do know that all of this is a comma until next time or something\nelse. I have to be real. These bodies are not made to last forever. There is\nalways something around the corner that will test us or will kill us. Life is\nshort. We have to do the best we can with whatever we know to do and trust God\nwith the results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep in mind God gives us brains. Have regular medical\ncheckups, bloodwork, and pay attention. Don’t go to a lazy doctor. A dear\nfriend recently died from liver disease because her doctor kept telling her not\nto worry about it and that she would be okay. Never hesitate to get a second\nopinion! Putting off taking care of something does not make it go away. The\nchances are good it will only get worse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember, with good care and treatments we aren’t going to\nlive forever but we might get to extend our lives and do a few more things we\nenjoy like spending time with our families, hobbies, living out our faith or\ncollecting some of our hard-earned Social Security money!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Glenn Mollette\u00a0 I never wanted cancer – who does? Within four months I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and prostate cancer.  Last October 26, my entire thyroid was removed… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":45113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45112"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}