You Don’t Wage Survival Fight Being Modest, Polite

I call prostate cancer the silent killer not because it sneaks up on you, which it can, but because as men we never speak up about such personal matters. It’s not macho to sit around with our buds and talk about our swollen prostate gland or about having to get up four or five times a night to urinate. We’d rather talk about the trophy elk we shot or that large bass we landed.

Well, guys, it is time to wake up. Prostate cancer is now the No. 2 cancer killer in men. About 40,000 men die of it each year; there were 315,000 new cases diagnosed in 1996.

You see, I just turned 50 and I’m very lucky my prostate cancer was caught early. Don’t think you’re too healthy to get it. I’ve never smoked, don’t drink except for an occasional glass of wine and probably eat more fresh vegetables than most. But I have cancer. Everything you hear says, “Don’t worry about it ‘till age 50 or so.” Don’t kid yourself. Many men in their 40s have been diagnosed with this killer. The biggest problem is the guys in their 50s who actually had it in their 40s but never got checked.

Doesn’t do much good at 55, when you find out you’ve already had cancer for 10 years. For the most part, prostate cancer is slow-growing. But, it can also accelerate or move into other parts of your body. If I’m scaring anybody here, good! I don’t want you to go through what I just did.

It’s just not safe to play Russian roulette with cancer. Start getting your PSA - prostate specific antigen - tests at 40. It only takes a few minutes and doesn’t cost that much.

There’s a support group out there called “Man to Man.” They meet in Spokane once a month and are starting up a group in Coeur d’Alene. If you want the facts and to really hear it straight, they have open discussions that leave nothing to the imagination. I owe those guys a lot as they opened my eyes wide and, according to my doctor, it was good that they did.

I want to thank Dr. Mullen of the Benewah Clinic in Plummer. You see, for a 50-year-old, my PSA test looked sort of OK. He wasn’t satisfied, though, even though I’d checked out to be very healthy otherwise. So he did more tests.

Please don’t wait until it is too late. If you have any questions, you are welcome to call me at (208) 686-1550 as I’m not afraid to talk about it, or call the American Cancer Society office in Spokane at (800) 537-7710.

Thanks for listening and don’t be afraid to speak up.

Ken Morris, 50, Plummer, Idaho.

MEMO: Your Turn is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion pages. To submit a Your Turn column for consideration, contact Rebecca Nappi at 459-5496 or Doug Floyd at 459-5466 or write Your Turn, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210-1615.