In the Beginning

I discovered I had prostate cancer because I was mad about having to enroll with an HMO.

I was 40-years-old. I was working in the production department of the Asheville Citizen-Times.

The first irony, and there are many, was the the sole reason I had taken the job was that I felt that at age 40 I needed a job with benefits.

I was working in the morning as the local host for NPR's Morning Edition on WCQS radio. Even though it was part-time and offered no benefits, that was what I considered my real job.

At first, at the newspaper, the insurance policy allowed you to go to whichever doctor your chose.

So, I never went to any.

With the HMO, you had to have a regular doctor and establish some sort of relationship. That is, you had to at least get a physical.

There were something like 300 employees and many of them were in the same boat as me.

Asheville was a growing town and there were only a few doctors who were even taking new patients.

I eventually found a guy and got an appointment for a physical.

I liked him right off the bat. He asked me a lot of questions. He was about my age, maybe a little younger and I felt comfortable telling him anything.

At the conclusion of the physical he was ordering some blood work and asked me if I wanted a PSA test.

He said I was a little young for it, but it was just a matter of drawing blood and the insurance company would pay for it.

"If the insurance company is going to pay for it, I'll have it," I said.

He explained the a positive result would not mean that I had prostate cancer, just that I needed to have further tests.

Guess what. It came back positive.

My life with cancer

I have decided to use this space to talk about my life with cancer in a more comprehensive way. If you are interested in my day-to-day life you can check out my blog An Inch an Hour