Understanding Prostate Cancer
This year in the United States, almost 180,000 men will be told that they have prostate cancer. After such a diagnosis, a man and his family face several choices regarding treatment; making decisions involving many personal as well as medical factors.
My Take
As your urological cancer specialist, it’s my responsibility to assemble the team that will help you in weighing these decisions and options based on research and the personal experience and expertise of the team members. With this team in place, we can proceed together, making sure that you are thoroughly familiar with all the available options, enabling you and your family to participate more confidently in planning your treatment.
Informational Overload
With so much information available from so many sources, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by questions about cancer and your treatment. It’s imperative that you bring questions and concerns to our team-even if you feel as though you should already know the answers.
My Take
To put it another way, no question or concern you may have about the disease or your treatment is out of place, or “stupid”. We need your peak performance as a member of the team. The mental space and effort taken up by having unanswered questions or unresolved issues detracts from that peak performance. By getting answers to your questions, you can become a more active participant in your care.
Your First Post-Diagnosis Doctor’s Appointment
Before your first appointment, you should compile a list of questions for your doctor. The American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute offer useful tools to help you organize your thoughts and questions before your visit. You may want to ask a family member or friend to join you when you talk to the doctor. This person can provide emotional support and help you remember what is said during the visit. To help remember what your doctor says, take notes, ask your accompanying family member or friend to do so.