Patient Stories: Prostate Cancer

Memorial Hermann The Woodlands

LeRoy: Chance of a Lifetime
I came out swinging against prostate cancer.
   

Having watched my father die of prostate cancer when he was 74, I knew I would do everything I could to avoid a similar fate. And when I learned three years ago that I had an aggressive form of the disease, I got the chance to prove it.

The diagnosis was certainly a setback, and the "Big C" was quite a shock. But because prostate cancer is so often curable if caught early, I knew there was no reason not to face this challenge with a very positive attitude.
   

I went in for surgery shortly after my diagnosis and left the hospital in less than a day. I experienced very little discomfort, and within five weeks I was playing tennis again!

A couple of weeks after that, I was playing golf. Life went back to normal. For two years everything was fine. Then the cancer returned. I was disappointed, of course, but I was lucky because it was caught early.
   

For this battle, I had 38 high-beam consolidated radiation treatments at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands. I didn’t have many complications, and the staff there was really great.

At the end of the last treatment, they offered me a choice of stones that read "luck," "hope," or "perseverance" to carry with me. They do that for all their patients, and it just goes to show how much they care and are involved in the recovery.

My last two tests indicated that I’m cancer-free. Getting cancer isn’t always something you control, but you can control how you respond to it. And you can always have "hope," just like my stone says.