For those who have followed our journey, I apologize for the long hiatus. So now, I bring my story current and to a close.
Although I was troubled, dazed and confused, I was able to get composed again through prayer and the support of my wife and family. Sometimes there’s a fine line between hope and despair.
I first listed my options: No treatment, radiation and surgery. Because prostate cancer is a slow growing cancer, I thought I could roll the dice and take my chances. How many years would this buy me? No way of telling. However, I was already at an intermediate risk stage. How long would it take to reach the high risk? No way to tell. Maybe a year. Maybe 10 years. What then? Then I’d be facing the other two alternatives.
Well after all the consultations, prayers for guidance and research, we decided on robotic prostatectomy, as our option. An option that I had written off initially. In terms of life expectancy, both surgery and radiation were in the 90% range. These treatments were also characterized by low recurrence rates. In addition to research, I also had the opportunity to speak to two men who had undergone this procedure and were doing well.
Although minimally invasive, a robotic surgery is still major surgery and requires at least six weeks rest from major activity or physically demanding work. For us, this was the best option in terms of removing cancer, preventing recurrence and was also less disruptive to schedules.
So I underwent robotic surgery 15 weeks ago and although I only took 10 days off from work, I did have a good bit of energy loss and fatigue from the stress of surgery. However, I’m back to full activities as of 7 weeks post surgery. I continue to thank God for so many texts or social media messages from friends, my church family and especially my wife and family for their love and support!
This has been a long and unexpected journey for us. A journey that has changed my perspective on life and definitely deepened our “woness.”
Two Becoming Won 