CANCER............. do we men take enough care ?

[Shedhand]

Good one mate.

Anyone heard how Rona is?

Cheers

[rona]

Hello Fred, Mike, Fred n, and others out there,
Sorry I haven't been around for a while, but everything seems to be coming along OK at present. Finally I have got my PSA reading down to 62 (was originally 1966 almost 12 months ago - should have been 4) I hopefully go for my last Chemo Wednesday week, won't be sorry as it knocks you around forat least 2 weeks after. One of the fellas mentioned they had 2 doses of petedrine to ease the pain, however they gave me one about two months ago and it had no effect at all; a waste of time. I trust all of you are going well, my apologies for not answering some threads, but I get to the stage that I can't even sit at the computer for even 5 minutes and have to head off back to bed.
I just checked through the prize draws for the last three - four months, there has certainly been some excellent donations made for our forum members - I'll just keep on hoping ! I see Neil has made some changes to the web page since I last visited; colour wise not sure whether it's good or bad, perhaps a little harder to read than before.
OK, best wishes to all, and I'll try and keep my computer up and running.

Cheers,
Ron.

[Big Shed]

That is great news Ron, I am very happy to hear that you are heading in the right direction

Keep your chin up mate, positive thoughts are the best medicine.

Fred

[AlexS]

Good to see you back on deck Ron. Keep it up.

[Ironwood]

Good to see you back on the forum Ron. Hope things continue to improve.
All the best mate.

[Shedhand]

Good to read things are going well for you Ron. All the best.
Mike

[Colin Howkins]

So sorry to hear of all the things that can make life a misery.

I'd like to share my 'spin' on things and I hope you don't take it as a holier than thou attitude.

My old man lived to be 93 an my Mum to 95 so I suppose I've got good genetics on my side. You could say the old man's innings were pretty good, but I can tell you the last session after tea was pretty shaky, and that went on for a number of years.

The old man was first diagnosed with a 'prostate' problem in his 70's and was told it would not be a problem for 5 years or so. So he put it off because he'd 'bed dead by then'. He kept this attitude up until his late 80's when finally the condition became life threatening and he was operated on. He ahd other health problems which made his quality of life pretty rugged.

I try to learn from life and looked at my old man and thought there has got to be a better way. I am a great believer that early diagnosis = good prognosis and a good outcome.

To that end I took it upon myself to have a really thorough check up, this was at age 40.In these check ups [last one cost $800 and there is no rebate as you instigate it yourself] they look at

• Cholestrol levels
• Sugar levels
• Sodium Tryglicerides
• Blood platelettes
• Red/White blood cell count
• look for cancer markers in your blood
• Sight
• Hearing
• Check for sun cancers, moles etc
• Check all muscle groups
• Check balance
• Full stress test - on a treadmill till you drop sort of thing
• Lung function
• Liver & kidney function
• Heart function
• Diet

Used to do this every 18 months, now every year - being 61. Over the years a few things have been found that have been cut out etc. But the good thing is they were caught early and were easily fixable.

One of my other passion is cycling and still do about 120 k'ms per week, play squash, keep fit and eat well - grow all our own veggies.

I take some great delight in being told when I do these tests that I slot into about the top 5% of the population when it comes to fitness/health etc.

I know you can't help bad luck, but I often wonder how much badluck can be avoided if a little bit of thought is applied.

I look at a lot of my contemporaries, and I know i would not want to swap. I get a little maudlin when in thiere company and all they can talk about is thier ailments, when I have none.

I do not believe my health/fitness is an accident or I am lucky, as a result I am still able to do many, many things my contemporaries just cannot contemplate because of poor health or lack of fitness

I guess I have just got to watchout for those buses

Thats it..

Colin Howkins
Graceville Qld