LIVING WITH PROSTATE CANCER: Talking is no cure, but it can help
Posted November 23, 2015 8:57 am.
Last Updated October 31, 2019 1:29 pm.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Talking can actually do a lot of good when it comes to dealing a life-changing disease, at least according to the leader of a local support group.
As we start the last full week of Movember, NEWS 1130 is presenting a series of reports entitled, “Living with Prostate Cancer.”
“The rewards of doing this kind of thing is to see the change in people’s lives,” says Len Gross, facilitator with the Vancouver Prostate Cancer Network.
The group meets on the first Thursday morning of every month.
“[The] first thing that men get out of coming to these meetings is information,” he explains. “The second thing is to see other people and how they’re coping.”
Speaking from his own experience with the disease, the 81-year-old says besides erectile dysfunction and incontinence, men dealing with prostate cancer also struggle with short-term depression.
“‘I don’t have the same strength. I don’t have the same flexibility. I can’t do the same things.’ And those kinds of things weigh on their mind to the degree that it impairs their capability to perform,” Gross adds.
But he says the simple act of meeting and talking with fellow patients can go a long way, “because they can see other people who are suffering with the same thing they are.”
“They understand; after conversations with other people, [they] say, ‘Oh, you have the same thing I have. Oh, yours is actually worse than mine and you’re living okay with it. You just look fine, you don’t look unusual, you don’t have any scars you’re exposing, so why can’t I do that?'”
Gross admits it can be hard to get men to open up about themselves at the best times, but once they do, it can make a big difference.
“A gentleman… phoned me… he asked me, ‘Will I live long enough to see my son graduate?’ And after discussing with him the condition he had, I was able to say…. ‘Absolutely.’ The sigh that I heard on the phone was just marvelous to hear.”
He says the greatest challenge is getting men to understand that prostate cancer needs not be a death sentence.
“To get a man to understand that active surveillance is just a small amount of the disease and can be monitored over a period of time, to a point where it becomes a clinical disease… this is the most difficult aspect that our medical community has — to get people to understand that you can actually live with the disease, without it causing serious problem for you.”
