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Scotty ~ A Personal Statement


Scotty

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image.pngThank You to everyone for the kind wishes and messages of support on here. I appreciate each and every one of those messages whether I know you or not, and whether we agree or we lock horns on here from time to time. I have also been somewhat overwhelmed by the private messages I have received that go into very personal details of your own or family member struggles .... and successes. I am humbled that you felt comfortable enough to share these stories. 

I am happy to note that at least 4 people in my circle of friends and relatives have used my situation as a motivation to go and get tested, including the wife of one of my friends who is off to get screened for breast cancer, a test she had been putting off for a while. I really cannot stress enough the importance of testing ... but perhaps the graphic below puts it in context. 

I have one simple ask of the users here, and its not one I make lightly. We dont ask for payment to run, maintain or update the site, we try to fund this through google ads or other ancillary income. However I am going to ask for money now, not for me, but for the Movember foundation via the link in my signature. If you click that link, you not only get a chance to read a ton of stuff about Prostate Cancer, but also the movements to reduce male Suicide and Testicular Cancer which they also support through Movember ... and as a bonus you get to see my handsome fizzog without the facial fuzz that has adorned it for the last 15 years !    

 

 

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  • Scotty unfeatured and unpinned this topic
  • 3 months later...

I have finally found my password for the site and want to wish you all the best Scotty. I've never met you but when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2015 , I found that I spent lots of time on CaleythistleOnline during my treatment and recovery and came into contact with lots of lovely supportive people (special mention to Scarlet Pimple).

I have just been for my annual check up and that went well. I don't imagine that anyone is quite as relaxed again about their health after a cancer diagnosis, but it certainly makes you appreciate what you've got and enjoy life.

I hope your treatment is going well.

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Thanks for the kind wishes CaleyHedgehog. It made me realise I had not updated things for a while.

My Movember charity push  was a success - I ended up raising $2235 for the organisation. My initial target was $1000 and then I raised it to $2000 so many thanks to all on here who donated. My works team raised a total of $8285 so we were all very pleased. 

W/regards to my surgery. I wont go into all the gory details but went in just before Xmas and all went well. I have a lovely scar from bellybutton downwards to show for it and after a couple of weeks the catheter and staples were removed. Initial results from the pathology were good and I had to wait until the end of January to get my first PSA test done. The results of that were '0' which is the best possible outcome. For now that means no radiation or chemo, just watchful waiting and a test every three months to make sure the PSA value does not rise. If it does rise then the gap between tests would reduce and after three rising numbers I would likely have to go for radiation treatment. Lets hope it doesn't come to that. 

You are right CaleyHedgehog - you are not relaxed again after this kind of thing. Every twinge is suspicious and a few days before the test you get a little nervous about the results even though its irrational and there is nothing you can do about it other than get the results and deal with them from there. This has taught me one thing however and that is not to do the very male - and very Highland - thing of thinking something will go away or sort itself out. It has taught me that we need to talk about these things to our doctors or specialists or even to our peers so this is why I have said to anyone from the start that I am available to talk about my experience or to just chat about it in general with anyone going through or about to go through the same thing. I am also urging males of a certain age to pack away the embarrassment and go for testing, it could save your life if you catch it early enough.  

 

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  • 1 year later...

Hey Smee. Thanks for asking. Its been a tough couple of years but I am still surviving 🙂 .

Cancer was dealt with. Officially I was slightly over the stage 2 border into stage 3 so a PSA test is in my diary every 3 months for the foreseeable future but the ones so far have been more or less coming back as 'undetectable'. Most have been 0.0008 (=undetectable) but had a couple that were just up one notch, but no sustained increase or doubling so after 16 months that is a good sign.

However, as you may know, during this time (almost 1 year ago now) I also lost my mother. She actually passed the day after Kenny Thomson, former ICT director and all-round good guy and her service was the day before his. Her loss was harder than dealing with the cancer, and still is some days. Mind you, in these days of Coronavirus, and with her having to endure 3 visits a week to the hospital for dialysis, it may have been a blessing that she went peacefully, at her own pace, and in her own place, when she had defied the medical odds for a long time than risk COVID-19 and a potentially horrible and undignified end in isolation in Raigmore. 

From all of this I have decided to take life a little differently now. I try not to let things bother me so much, and realised we have one life to live so we should make the most of it and do what we want, when we want, and not be ruled by the opinion of others (whilst staying within the laws of society of course). I think the world having to basically press a reset button the likes of which will be talked about in history books for eternity also feeds into this new mindset. 

I do miss football though .... on both sides of the pond. 

 

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  • 1 year later...

Thanks for asking @SMEE . So far so good. PSA tests all normal with another scheduled for later this month. Now on a six-monthly cycle of tests for the next year or two, then it goes to yearly if all remains normal.

Rest of life is treading water due to COVID. Fully vaccinated but cant travel, still working from home, (not so) little guy has been in online school since March 2020 and will be until at least February of next year which is the next date we can transfer back .... and we will only do that when he is eligible to get his jabs.

On the sports front, TFC have just returned to Toronto, with a 50% capacity set at the stadium after playing mostly in USA since March 2020, mainly because our borders were closed and they would have to quarantine for 14 days after each crossing. However, due to the vaccine situation for Simon, I have opted out of my tickets for the rest of the year and will resume them again next year ... probably an excellent choice as TFC have been terrible all season despite having the highest wage bill in the league and one of the strongest teams on paper (just not grass)! Glad to see that ICT are keeping my football sanity going for the most part. 

Hope you - and everyone else out there is bearing up and keeping fingers crossed that we get back to some form of normal too ....

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