Here I stand, hat in hand, humbled before you. Turns out that I knew very little about PSA tests. I had NO idea that men are not advised to get them after the age of seventy unless they want to. At that age, results can be misleading and appear to indicate cancer when there is none there or to not detect a cancer if there is. This can lead to excess testing, unnecessary treatments, and anxiety.
Also, and this one is tough to hear, a limited life span. However, according to what I've been reading, if a man is in good health and the odds are on his side for a longer lifespan, and he wants to, he can opt to get the test. One more tool in the toolbox, I suppose.
So. I'm sure that is very oversimplified but I believe those are the basic facts. And, this I did know- there are many different types of prostate cancers, some of them quite aggressive (the kind Biden has) and some really are not and don't require treatment. This reminds me a great deal of breast cancer. There are types that call for all the guns- surgery, chemo, radiation. And there are types that simply are not going to kill a woman. Or at least one type. And mammograms, like the PSA, are notorious for showing things that aren't really there or making benign things look possibly dangerous or entirely missing things that are, and almost every woman who has gotten regular mammograms has gotten at least one call-back over the years which- talk about anxiety producing! BUT, older women seem to get diagnosed with breast cancer at a higher rate than younger women. In fact, 20% of breast cancers are diagnosed in women 75 or over so there's no cut-off age for us and our testing.
Enough of that.
I do not mind going to the dermatologist. Not sure why. Probably because I've never been diagnosed with skin cancer AND they neither weigh you nor take your blood pressure. At least mine doesn't. Also, my dermatologist cracks me up. He has the driest sense of humor. Today when I was standing before him and he was doing a full-body exam as decorously as possible, he asked me to point my right toe out and move my leg to the side. Which I did. It almost felt like a ballet move.
"Nicely done," he said. Haha!
I showed him two places that have bothered me for awhile, never quite going away entirely, and often being itchy. He said they were pre-cancers and he burned them off. No big deal at all. He also wants me to use some kind of cream on my upper chest to get rid of some precancerous stuff going on there. He could burn it off, he said, but that would leave a glaring white spot which many women do not care to have in that area. I told him that my décolletage has not been very attractive for a long time so he could burn it all off for all I cared, but he said he preferred I used the cream. Unlike the cream I used on my face about fifteen years (or possibly twenty-five years) ago which basically burned off all of my facial skin in a long and protracted period of pain and blood and scaring the hell out of small children in the grocery store, this stuff only requires five days of applying it twice a day.
Brownies might be a different story but that's neither here nor there. I do feel that if there were brownies (the good ones, not that crappy ones) around, I still wouldn't be tempted to eat them.
Weird. But rather wonderful.
Or her. I really should do some research and observation before I start blithely misgendering the creature.
I have no way to gracefully end this post so I'll just say, as usual...
Love...Ms. Moon
Good report from Derm!
ReplyDeleteThe hawk can be an "it!" since you don't know the gender!
Good news about the Zepbound!
You sound good on the medication. And it's odd that the derma doesn't cause you anxiety like other doctors. But good.
ReplyDeleteThe thing about breast cancer in older women is that quite a few die with, but not from, it. Like prostate cancer in older men, not always the cause of death.
DeleteTaking care of business. Glad to hear that all is well and that you are not experiencing side effects after what is it now, four days? Even though i am morbidly obese the doctor will not prescribe meds- Wondering if she is a sadist...I maxed out this year having blown out my foot and wrecked my vision , it is an adjustment. No exercise- I have a stationary bike but it hates me. Appetite is probably just boredom , depression and lazy
ReplyDeleteAF. Anyway, glad to hear that all is well in your ballet positions. Your dermatologist probably looks forward to having you in the clinic! Delightful!
If a man has or had prostate cancer then the sons need to be tested regularly. My ex was diagnosed at 53 but went on to live a healthy life. My sons have regular testing willingly. Breast cancer testing for daughters is essential also if you have been diagnosed. .
ReplyDelete“Love, Ms. Moon” is always graceful. I don’t know much about any of this. An old friend, the whitest person I know, had that facial treatment about 30 years ago. It was so awful he said he would never do it again. He just had the new treatment done and was relieved and grateful.
ReplyDeleteI have "get checked for skin cancer" on my list of things to get done this year. I'm a bit worried about being entirely naked, is that how they do it? And will the room be warmed? I guess I'll find out. I've had a lot of tests and procedures this year, I figured it was time, especially the cataracts which are now done and I have only one last checkup with that doctor. Tomorrow is ultrasound day, my doctor thinks I may have gallstones. Oh joy!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear the Zep....is still working for you, but wondering why a hawk is visiting you.
I get an annual whole body skin check. You wear a paper gown, the terms adjusts it as they look at different areas of skin. It's not stressful. Even getting small bumps frozen/ burnt off is a brief sting, nothing much.
DeleteI wrote derma, not terms!
DeleteOn her doctor's advice, my mother actually stopped getting mammograms at some point, too. I don't remember the age. Maybe 75 or 80? This whole Biden episode has educated the entire country on PSA levels!
ReplyDelete