Checking Your (PSA) Level

Sometime ago now 12^th March 2009 - I wrote about the absolute necessity of taking care of yourself, by essentially sparing the time to undergo a test for Prostate Specific Antigen – PSA for short!  This is a simple test performed by your local practitioner or surgery nurse and/or medical centre by giving a blood sample and all it takes is seconds. Seconds that will tell you what you need to know about the condition of your Prostate.  In my case and the reason I was checked out and diagnosed with Prostate Cancer, was that my late father was a candidate for this slow growing tumour, but unfortunately for him and thousands of others like him and before him – checking (PSA) levels wasn’t a priority. It has since come to light that this cancer is the second biggest cancer to cause death in men. The only test my late father told me about and endured was, (according to him - some 30 years ago) - the rudimentary “rectum finger testing,” determining an enlarged prostate. This haphazard evidence was and according to medical statistics at that time, a most reliable and positive method to warrant further investigation. In my dad’s case, sadly, the cancer had come out of the prostate gland and into his bones. Morphine was the only way that he could have scant freedom from his incessant pain. The dosage was such that he suffered the trauma and humiliation of hallucinating, describing to the family in great detail when we visited him, that the fairies were playing leap frog at the end of the bed and not to sit there, “they wouldn’t like it.”  He had just reached the retirement age of 65, fit and healthy.  Two months later the death certificate read: Carcinoma Prostate. Get real and have your Prostate (PSA) checked out - you’ll be glad you did, I am………….. and that was three years ago.