Editor’s Note: Several teams sponsored by area businesses and cancer survivors are out on the streets and in their businesses right now raising money for the American Cancer Society through the Carthage Relay for Life. This is the first of a series of stories The Carthage Press will feature about cancer survivors and their stories of persistence and courage in the face of an implacable disease.
The Carthage Relay for Life is a “family affair,” for Ed Moore, his wife, Sherrie and their three children.
Ed Moore is a prostate cancer survivor. Shortly after Ed’s cancer treatments ended, Sherrie was diagnosed with cancer and is currently undergoing treatment.
Ed told me his “cancer story” began in 2007.
Ed said that he had had PSAs (a Prostate-Specific Antigen blood test which is a screening tool for detecting prostate cancer) every birthday since he’d turned 40, and the results had always been slightly elevated, and he was told there was nothing to worry about as there could be a number of reasons for the elevated results.
In mid 2007, Ed began having comfort issues with lots of pressure and lower back pain. He visited his urologist where he underwent the radial test and was scoped. The doctor told him his prostate was “tiny.”
At the time, Ed’s job required him to sit on the floor to work on prototype equipment and the pain became terrible. In an effort to find an answer for the pain, he went to visit an orthopedic doctor, thinking he was possibly suffering from an old pelvic structure break. The doctor ordered an MRI which was done the day before Thanksgiving. The following Monday he saw his doctor again and at that time was told his prostate was “enormous.”
Due to work and weather issues at the end of 2007 and in early 2008, it was February before he would see a different Urologist. The new doctor had him take calcium and zinc and to drink massive amounts of water. This would either cause the PSA to lower or to increase. In Ed’s case, it increased it 2.75 points in less than 30 days. With the increase in the PSA, the doctor ordered a biopsy.
The Gleason score, which is a measurement to rate cancer levels in a man’s prostate, came back really high and his doctor wanted to do a radical prostatectomy, but Ed wanted to get a second opinion. Ed did some research and found a doctor at the KU Medical Center who would perform the da Vinci surgery, which is a minimally invasive, robotic-assisted surgical procedure that removes the cancerous prostate gland and related structures.
