Monday 13. October is going to be a day I will remember for a very long time. A day where I was reminded of several important things. First and foremost, one shall really watch out for what one ask for, but also reminded that ignorance indeed has its time where it is truly bliss. Let me explain.
I had a conversation with a good friend of mine about the diagnosis I received more than 2 years ago .Stage 3 prostate cancer. I have done remarkably good over the years 100% on my own, no official treatments, but it is as if few really pay attention to it, because it is stage 3. Can not blame them, because my own motivation to go holistic was among other tings founded in the perceived fact, that I with early stage 3 had all the time in the world before it became critical at stage 4. It was not as dangerous as stage 4. To have more people paying attention, I contemplated with my friend, that at stage 4 diagnosis would have been better.
But this inspired me to have a closer look at the definitions, because sometimes the AI called it stage 4, and it did not make sense to me. According to the information I got 2 years ago when I looked into it, then Prostate Cancer Research Institute in the US actually would have graded it as stage 2. But the definitions I worked with was, if it was confined to the prostate, then it was either stage 1 or 2, if it had breached the prostate, but only to areas in close proximity it was stage 3, and it it had spread to distant organs and bones, it was stage 4.
But it turns out the math is a bit more complicated than that, and AI gave me an explanation that did not make much sense to me, so instead of guessing, I decided to upload the MRI, Biopsy and PSMA Pet scan reports, and asked AI to evaluate. It turns out I was in fact diagnosed stage 4 prostate cancer right from the start. It is determined as a combination of metastasis, PSA, Gleason Score and various other technical details stated in the reports. There are 2 stage 4, the IVA and the IVB. IVB being the worst with distant metastasis. I was diagnosed IVA.
And this bring me to the ignorance part. I did not know, as mentioned I thought I had the full spectrum of stage 3 to play with, before entering critical area. This was the foundation for me to explore the holistic approach. If the oncologist had told me 2 years ago that I was at stage 4, then I would most certainly have taken the ADT as a minimum, to put a break on things. At that time I had no insight to any holistic protocols, and no idea what would work, and what would not. Not that I got answers now, but now I at least know one CAN stall the disease by natural means. A knowledge destiny would have robbed me of, had I known the truth from the start.
So here I am, still got to get used to the new information, because being stage 3 was my mental buffer, and now it is gone. It is something I got to work with, because mindset is all, and reality is, no matter what I know or knew, the disease was the same, and the result of what I have been doing remain the same, although even more impressive in its nature. Upside is, I am pretty sure I will have less hardship staying off my infamous blueberry cheesecake. 🙂