The first email to announce my cancer and an email response

Annie is Mary's sister. There are more emails from people and I might load them all up. The support, the rallying that occurs is one of the curiously wonderful gifts of cancer.

Dear Mary and Dan,



I just read your emails, AFTER I had called you. So now I can worry about whether or not I sounded callous on the phone........



I am sorry to hear this news but grateful for its early detection and for both of your upbeat attitudes. And now Ray and Dan can bond! Interestingly, I was talking to two men at whole Foods yesterday, both in their 60s, both with prostate cancer who are just letting it be. I don't know if that is on their doctor's advice or their own desires, or if at some point they will need to have it treated. Their feeling is that every man will get it if he doesn't die of something else first and that MAN was never intended to live this long. Poor planning on "someone's" part, I say. It reminds me of one of my favorite sayings: "If you're born to hang, you'll never drown; so let the big cat jump."



I don't know what all I am meaning with the above, but do know that I am, right now, holding a good thought for you both. And right back at you with the hug Dan.



Love,

annie

"Riordan, Mary" wrote:


Good morning,

Dan summarizes his situation below--his prostate ic cancerous so we will deal with the next step. We will be fine; we have coped with stuff before and we will cope again.

The doctor, as Dan notes below, called this morning at 7:30. I was still asleep so Dan had some time to process it before I came downstairs. We have an appointment to talk to the doctor on Wednesday at 3, and we will send another email update then. I am glad, in a way, the the doctor's office screwed up the communication because this way, I was here and not a plane flight away. The nurse who called to set up the consultation apologized three times for the mess-up.

Look at it this way--this is caught early because I didn't feel ready to hike so we stayed home and went to Michael Riordan's wedding where Dan danced too much and hurt his knee and had to have an operation and had to have a pre-op physical before the operation so Dr. Svendsen noted the elevated PSA and sent him to the urologist. I see that chain of events as most fortuitous.

Love,M

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Riordan [mailto:riordand@uwstout.edu]
Sent: Mon 10/22/2007 8:30 AM
Subject: Urology report

Hi, well, my prostate is cancerous. Well, shit. Or, I suppose, better, well
piss.

The urologist called this morning at 7:30 (he apologized for the mess up on
Friday). The cancer is in basically low and early stages. The therapy,
whatever it is, would not begin before the first week of December. That is
about all he said. Understandably, and acceptably to me, he does not want
to go into detail over the phone;rather he wants to do it face-to-face when
there is enough time to explain things in detail, even with, he assured me,
visual aids. This will happen on Wednesday of this week. When we know more
I will let you know.

I am off to work. Sensing that this was coming I spent all day Saturday
giving out grades and finishing off a huge amount of work so that I do not
have to go into 'evaluation mode' today.

Thanks for all the phone calls and emails.

I love you all. And here's a hug.

Dan