It's a little uncomfortable talking publicly about something so personal to me, but this is too important to let go.
If you're a man over the age of 40, you really need to get screened for prostate cancer.
The key to successfully treating prostate cancer is to catch it early, which is what happened in my case, and the way I found out about my cancer is nothing short of amazing.
Last September, I interviewed Coastal Carolina University president David DeCenzo shortly after he returned to campus following prostate surgery.
As a prostate cancer survivor, he had a message for other men: Get screened.
"My recommendation is, just go get a test. It's a simple blood test, because you just never know," he said at the time.
I ended my report that night with these words:
"I'm 52 and I've never been screened for prostate cancer. But now, I'm going in for a test next week."
I followed through on that promise and will be thankful for the rest of my life that I did.
After screening in September and a biopsy the next month, I found out from my urologist in November that I had tested positive for cancer.
The good news: We caught it early and the prognosis is excellent for a full recovery after surgery.
But I'll always be haunted by what if's.
What if I had not done that interview with Dr. DeCenzo? What if another reporter had been assigned to do that report? What if I had not followed through with my own screening?
What if...?
My new friend, Dave DeCenzo, said it best: "It could have gone on for 10 years before I would have known anything and by then it could have been too late."
I'll be keeping up with this blog during my recovery. I'll be writing about my experience with prostate cancer and you can bet, I'll be pushing one message pretty hard: Get screened.
