That better explains the feelings I have, but did not know how D felt. I asked many times on the way home, but he would just say, "Okay" Now I know he had thoughts he did not know what to do with. I felt helpless.
When you grow up in the time line D and I have, "The Big C" Is the worst thing that can happen to anyone.
This all started when we went to see the doctor for other reasons. Mainly to change D's blood pressure medication because his regimen had side effects like a nagging dry cough, and poor control. Of course the doctor ordered blood work.
D's PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) was with in normal limits, yet slightly under 4 nanograms/millaliter. But between 4-10 men have a 25% chance of having prostate cancer. Following a PSA level the next screening is DRE (Digital Rectal Exam) at that point the urologist noted a hard palpable area, and a biopsy was recommended.
I think the first thing we did was go home and call D's Dad, come to find out his dad has prostate cancer and underwent a prostatectomy.
We really did not want to think about the outcome. D and I felt we would deal with things as they evolve. Then a call came to see the doctor for a followup. When we arrived we were kind of nervous but laughing as usual and D is his comedic self, always making me laugh.
The Doc went right into the final Diagnosis. out of the 12 specimens collected ONE, specimen number 3 concluded Adenocarcinoma involving 2 of 2 cores, Gleason Score 3+3=6 of 10 carcinoma involves approximately 60% of right apex biopsy tissue.
The Gleason Score
Gee How to explain that, well lets say this method is used to classify how the cell looks in cancerous tissue. The less the cells look like normal cells the more malignant the cancer, two numbers each from 1 to 5, are assigned to the two most predominant types of cells noted. The two numbers are added together they give us a Gleason Score. Higher numbers indicate more aggressive cancers.
So D's is 6
the scale
Low 2,3, or 4
Intermediate 5,6, or 7
High 8,9,or 10
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