One of the first things you discover after a prostate cancer diagnosis is that there may not be one obvious path forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Surgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Radiation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hormone therapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Combinations of treatments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Different doctors can look at the same cancer and recommend different approaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That can be reassuring because you have options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It can also be terrifying because you have options<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wanted someone to tell me, \u201cMike, this is clearly the right answer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, I began realizing that cancer treatment often involves choosing among imperfect choices while trying to understand risks you never imagined you would have to consider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For me, that decision ultimately led to radical prostatectomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I knew surgery came with potential consequences. Continence. Sexual function. Recovery. The possibility that surgery might not be the end of treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But after asking questions, weighing the information available to us, and talking through the options with Sue, it became the path I believed I could move forward with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That distinction matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don’t believe there is one universally \u201cright\u201d prostate cancer treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is the treatment that makes the most sense for your disease, your priorities, your age, your health, your risk tolerance, and your life.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n And that’s why I have become such a believer in asking one more question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not because doctors don’t know what they’re doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Quite the opposite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I respect medical expertise enormously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But physicians bring their knowledge of medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You bring the knowledge of your life.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Both matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually, there comes a moment when the research has to stop and the decision has to begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You choose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then you move forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I learned that courage isn’t certainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes courage is saying:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don’t know exactly how this will turn out\u2014but this is the path I’m choosing.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That was Mile Marker Two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We had made a decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next came the part neither of us could completely prepare for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Surgery.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Choosing a Path Forward With Courage One of the first things you discover after a prostate cancer diagnosis is that there may not be one obvious path forward.\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[29,23,15],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mile-marker-journal","tag-cancer-journey","tag-cancer-treatment","tag-prostate-cancer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155,"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions\/155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}