“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Edward McFowland of St. Louis was getting ready for work a couple of years ago when he felt something moving up the left side of his body and it settled behind his heart. He thought this was it – it being a heart attack. “font-family: Verdana;”>
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>He knew he had high blood pressure, and would soon find out how high it had become.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“My heart had started squeezing, so I called paramedics and I called my godsister,” he said. “I opened the door and as they were coming in – I was passing out.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>He woke back up as they were treating him in the ambulance, on the way to Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“They took me in and they worked on me. After about an hour, they came in and told me I did not have a heart attack,” McFowland said. “They said my blood pressure was high – my blood pressure was 210 over 200.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>That’s stroke territory.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>He said workers were asking if he felt alright – and he said he felt okay, but he just had a headache. He had no noticeable effects from the stroke scare.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“They kept me in about four or five days, at which point I had an appointment with my regular physician at the VA,” he said. “I went to the doctor – he ran some tests and changed my medication around.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>After a couple of weeks on the new meds, his blood pressure was still too high for the medicines McFowland had been taking. “font-family: Verdana;”>
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>His doctor ran more blood tests and McFowland awaited word on the results. He received an answer on his birthday at 9:30 at night while playing chess with his son – and it was anything but expected. “font-family: Verdana;”>
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“The doctor told me, ‘You got the prostate cancer. We need to see you in the office,’” he recalled. “Just, BAM. It just floored me – I got real scared, real quick. “
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>McFowland said he went back to the chess board and kicked his king over.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“They said I got cancer,” he told his young adult son and his son’s mother.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I’m going to die,” McFowland said he thought, “Because “back in the day’ nobody survived cancer. When, they open you up, it spreads and you die.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>His next doctor’s visit shortly afterward dispelled those sorts of fears. Persons with advanced cancers that had already spread throughout their bodies at diagnosis were the ones with higher mortality. “font-family: Verdana;”>
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“He told me ‘Yes, you have cancer, but don’t worry about it, because we can treat it as long as we get it in time,’” McFowland said. “font-family: Verdana;”>
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that produces fluid for semen. It is located below the bladder and in front of the rectum, and surrounds the tube that carries urine away from the bladder and out of the body.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>McFowland said among his many tests must have been the PSA test for prostate cancer. The PSA test measures levels of a substance called prostate specific antigen, the higher the level, the more likely cancer is present.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>A prostate biopsy confirms a prostate cancer diagnosis. The results of the biopsy are reported using a rating system called a Gleason grade and a Gleason score. The Gleason grade, from 1-5, suggests how aggressive, or how fast the cancer may be growing. To develop a Gleason score, the two most predominant grades of tissue samples are added together to achieve a number between 2 and 10. The higher the Gleason score, the more likely the cancer is to have spread beyond the prostate gland.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“They did a biopsy and it came back they informed me that all of my samples were positive and I had prostate cancer and mine was spreading,” McFowland said. “They informed me it was a slow growing cancer, and I had time come up with a game plan to deal with this.” “font-family: Verdana;”>
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>After taking a little over a year to consider proton therapy and other treatment options, like radiation, chemotherapy, or some combination, McFowland decided on surgery. During that time, McFowland said his PSA level had jumped from about 5 to 12. “font-family: Verdana;”>
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>He underwent a radical prostatectomy at the Cochran VA Medical Center in May 2010. In a radical prostatectomy, surgeons remove the entire prostate gland, along with some surrounding tissue to totally remove the cancer and to prevent its spread. “font-family: Verdana;”>
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>McFowland said the surgery was scheduled to last three hours, but it ended up lasting 10 hours, because his girth made the surgery more complicated.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I was scheduled to be there for three days and I was there for a month,” he said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>What followed was a painful but prayerful recovery and inpatient physical therapy at the VA hospital at Jefferson Barracks for a few weeks.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>McFowland had no symptoms for prostate cancer, and some men don’t. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says symptoms include:
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“font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Difficulty in starting urination;
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“font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana;”>weak or interrupted flow of urine;
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“font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana;”>frequent urination, especially at night;
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“font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana;”>difficulty in emptying the bladder completely;
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“font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana;”>pain or burning during urination;
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“font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana;”>blood in the urine or semen;
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“font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana;”>pain in the back, hips, or pelvis that does not go away; and
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“font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana;”>painful ejaculation.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The CDC says prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men regardless of race or ethnicity, but it is more common in some racial and ethnic groups, namely African Americans, Whites and Hispanic/Latinos – and less common among American Indians, Alaska Natives and Asian/Pacific Islanders.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>It is the second leading type of cancer death in the U.S., second only to lung cancer. The National Cancer Institute estimates nearly 241,000 new cases of prostate cancer in the U.S. in 2011, and 33,720 deaths.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>However, if detected early, prostate cancer can be successfully treated and sometimes cured. The American Cancer Society says most recent data suggests for all men with prostate cancer, the relative 5-year survival rate is nearly 100 percent and the relative 10-year survival rate is 91 percent.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>That’s why The Empowerment Network (TEN) of prostate cancer survivors in St. Louis is reaching out into black churches on Sundays – to educate congregations about prostate cancer and the importance of early detection and to partner with health care providers to offer testing after church service the following week. “font-family: Verdana;”>
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;”> “It was truly amazing to see the deacons and church members from Mt. Beulah, along with Dr. Shields, scrambling throughout the church to find men that had never been tested for prostate cancer,” said Mellve Shahid, about a recent testing event at Mt. Beulah Missionary Baptist Church. “It was fantastic to see the women, the mothers and the wives encouraging the men in the church to go to the back room and to take that simple blood test that might one day save their lives.” “font-family: Verdana;”>
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;”> Men from the prostate cancer survivors network also to encourage men in the congregation to get tested by sharing their personal experiences.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Perhaps some of the Network’s greatest work takes place behind the scenes, along the bedsides of men like McFowland, who are comforted by the prayers and support from other men who know what it’s like to face prostate cancer surgery, procedures and treatment. “font-family: Verdana;”>
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“Those brothers – aw, man – awesome!” McFowland said. “The awesome thing was even before I had the surgery. I got so much support and so much information. I started talking to brothers who had what I have, and in turn, their experiences.” “font-family: Verdana;”>
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The American Cancer Society says men at higher risk – African-American men and men who have a first-degree relative (father, brother, or son) diagnosed with prostate cancer at an early age (younger than age 65) – should start testing earlier, at age 45, while men at average risk for the disease should start talking to their doctor at age 50. “font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“The stroke saved my life, but what brought me back to life were my brothers and my sisters,” McFowland said. “If not for them – they sacrificed a lot for me. They were just there for me.” “font-family: Verdana;”>
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Search more about prostate cancer at www.cancer.org or www.pcf.org.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Visit The Empowerment Network website at www.theempowermentnetwork.net.
