Jim Nedelka survived prostate cancer and early detection helped, a story he shares on the @CancerInterviews podcast.
His employer offered free prostate screenings for men. Jim, from New York City, was in his early forties when a check of his blood revealed prostate-specific antigen, or PSA of more than six. This was in October 2016. Jim was told to be seen by a urologist. After running more tests, in December, the urologist told Jim he had cancer.
Jim returned in January 2017 for a biopsy. Afterward, the urologist showed Jim a chart said this particular cancer is not all the aggressive.
He told Jim he will not need a prostatectomy, or chemotherapy or a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. That left radiation and Jim was told with radiation treatment, he had three options.
One was a regimen covering fie consecutive days. The urologist said that regimen would burn, a regimen he said that wasn’t necessary given Jim’s diagnosis.
Another option involved radiation covering 42 days. It included a pause after the 25th day to re-evaluate Jim’s PSA.
The last option increasing the dosage a notch and he would do it for 30 consecutive sessions. That was the option Jim chose.
Getting to and from the treatment was a challenge. A van was provided for him, but his journey went in from one part of the city to a distant part of the city, a three-hour ride, one way.
Jim’s radiation treatment concluded in April 2017. He had some blood in his urine the few days after the conclusion of the treatment, but otherwise, ever since, he has been fine. Jim says he has been fortunate in that his prostate has only expanded just a little bit, and as a result, he doesn’t have a great deal of urination issues. Subsequent checkups have shown his PSA is just above zero.
By way of advice, Jim says when one addresses cancer, they cannot take shortcuts. He says he has known some patients who did not take their full dosage of medication, which says is the worst thing one can do. Regarding prostate cancer, he urges men to get checked every year.
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TRANSCRIPTION
Jim Nedelka…
Bruce Morton: Greetings and welcome to the Cancer Interviews podcast. Thanks for joining us. I’m your host, Bruce Morton. Some cancer journeys have more variables than others, and among those with the most is the journey with prostate cancer. On this episode we will hear from Jim Nedelka of New York City, who has survived prostate cancer. We hope this story will educate and inspire. Now here he is, and Jim, welcome to Cancer Interviews.
Jim Nedelka: Hi, Bruce, and good to see you again.
BM: Good to see, Jim, and what we want to do at the top of this interview is what we want to do when we begin any of our episodes, and that is to get to know a little about you, exclusive of your cancer journey. So, if you would, tell us a bit about where you are from, what you do for work and what you like to do with your free time.
JN: Born in New York, Brooklyn, specifically, grew up on Long Island, went to Fordham University. Started working in broadcasting as a sophomore, worked at WHN Radio in New York. When they changed formats, I was at the initial working crew at WFAN, which was radio’s first all-sports station. I worked producing the radio broadcasts of the New York Mets and making commercials and what have you. When WFAN had financial difficulties, I and many others were let go and I ended up with the ABC Radio Networks. Since then, I have done a lot of freelancing. I have been married 41 years and have two adult children.
BM: Let’s talk about your life, your health, prior to your diagnosis. At that time, were you in good health?
JN: Like most people, I wound up having cholesterol issues, and as I later found out from my dad, it was genetic. His doctor had noticed his cholesterol going through the roof and kept putting more restrictions on what he could eat. He was taking statins. Then he had some heart issues. So, like him, I take cholesterol meds. I also take aspirin because my doctor said at the time, it couldn’t hurt. Then at one point I was diagnosed with diabetes. So, I’m taking insulin, so I am working with that as well. So, how did I find out I had prostate cancer? Well, I had been going to the doctor pretty regularly, and since the age of 40-ish, one of the great things at ABC was that they offered free mammograms for women and free prostate screenings for men. I went to these screenings religiously every time they were available because I was over 40 and I knew how terrible it could be to let cancers grow and not do anything about them. Catching them early is always the sane way to go, even if you are floored by the news. Go early, go often. So, this one time I got my blood and urine checked. This one doctor was going through the numbers and breezed over the PSA test. I go back the following fall to get my scripts renewed and now I have a female doctor who was working with the head physician where I went. She said he was no longer working there, which didn’t surprise me because his bedside manner wasn’t exactly the best. So, she goes through the whole thing with me. She looks at my blood work and says my PSA is pretty high. She said it was like “six-point-something.” I said I had no idea what that means, so she takes out a chart and she shows me that said seven is a red flag and anything above that is alarm bells. She said she wanted to run my blood work again, to make sure that it isn’t a mistake. So, a couple weeks go by, and now it’s like October of 2016. She runs the test, it comes back about a week later and she says my numbers are high and she is going to send me to a urologist. So, I go there and see him in early November. He runs a test and tells me to come on December tenth. I go in, it’s December tenth, 2016. I know this date like my birthday, my kids’ birthdays and my wedding anniversary. I think most people that get this news know the date. He says we should look at my PSA, then he says I’ve got cancer. I kinda figured he would say that. With the number of tests I had undergone I thought they would reveal nothing but a cancer diagnosis. However, he says my cancer is not aggressive. I asked him if I should wait before taking action and he said no, that I should address it as soon as I can. I reminded him it was December tenth, and asked if I had to do anything before Christmas. He said no, and that I should “enjoy the holidays.” He said this right after dropping cancer on me. So, I come back in January for a biopsy, which was no fun. Afterward, the urologist shows me a chart, and says while it’s not that bad, any cancer is bad. Again, he says it’s not aggressive, but then he tells me my options. He says I don’t need a prostatectomy, which is a relief. That is invasive surgery, which is not only demoralizing, but you can feel dehumanized, too, because that is right at the heart of your testosterone and everything else. He went on to say I don’t need chemo or a combination of chemo and radiation, so that left radiation and I was told there were three ways to do this. There was a five consecutive day radiation regimen. He said that option will burn me, and my cancer isn’t bad. So, the other options were radiation across 42 days. That included a pause after the 25th day to re-evaluate what your PSA was could have delayed the rest of the treatment a week. The final option was bumping up the dosage a notch and you do it straight through for 30 sessions. I opted for that because in my mind, I was still working and still freelancing and if I have an assignment, I want to be able to write and I don’t want to be wiped out from radiation. Luckily, it never impacted me that way. As for the treatments, I live in Upper Manhattan, but under the health plan I had because I was unemployed, I was sent to Staten Island Radiation Center. With traffic, one way, that was a three-hour journey. The upside of that was the woman who was in charge, the doctor who was in charge, had been part of the team that previously dealt with me. It was part of a conglomeration with another doctor who had an office in Brooklyn. The biggest part of this thing was because I was in a group, and they provided transportation, every day at 7:30 a.m., there was a van that picked me up, then picked up other people, but I spent more time in the van than I did with the doctor.
BM: Jim, if you look at the treatment and its aftermath, what was that like once all the treatment was finished?
JN: Going through the actual treatment, the only discomfort that I had at the treatment center was, you had to have a full bladder. Some of the people there are doing the dance, waiting to go into the chamber to get the radiation. The reason they do that is to keep the prostate steady so they can hard-target you. The one thing I had done in the urologist’s office prior to going out to Staten Island for the first treatment was they had implant three tiny pieces of gold target balls in my prostate so they were the point of origin for the radiation, and that’s where the problems would be. I am smiling now, but it seemed so strange to be lugging this around. I don’t feel it, it’s never bothered me, but it is sort of unusual. I had no problems with the treatment at all; the only problem that we had was that everybody in my group, including a lot of people whose first language was Spanish, we had a problem with the primary doctor’s substitute when she needed a day off. He had terrible bedside manner. I never saw a guy that heartless as a doctor. That said, post-treatment, I’ve been fine. I had blood in my urine for a couple days afterwards, but I never had intense pain. Other than that, no problems tied to the treatment. The key here is really important to understand: If you have to address cancer, do it 100 percent. There are so many people who think they don’t need their meds, but they need their meds. Take every tablet in the dosage. Anyway, I finished my treatment on April second, 2017. They say five years and you’re over the hump, but my PSA numbers ever since have been great. I mean, they are so far down, they are point-zero-something. I am grateful for it.
BM: You have moved on to survivorship, you are moving closer to that magic five-year mark, but in your post-treatment world, is there anything you can’t do that could do, pre-treatment?
JN: Off the top of my head, a couple things I can think of. Some men will experience a deficiency in vigor when it comes to getting close to your partner. That hasn’t happened to me, but I can understand how it could. As they told me, you are never going to be 100 percent as virile after the fact as you were prior. Some guys are more virile than others. You know, you are what you are when you are. I personally am not using any stimulants, Viagra, Cialis, whatever. But that’s because of the heart situation in my family. I am not going to push the envelope unnecessarily.
BM: So, are there any issues with respect to urination, post-treatment?
JN: No. The ‘urge to purge’ has never been one of desperation. I don’t remember that being the case prior to the radiation treatment. I was fortunate in that my prostate was enlarged was only enlarged a little bit, it wasn’t that huge of a change. That wasn’t that huge because the cancer hadn’t spread. I was lucky. However, that of course doesn’t mean it will be that way for every gentleman, going forward. Each case is a case unto itself. There may be a case similar to somebody else’s, but your case is going to be unique to you because of your personal body chemistry.
BM: Those are the variables we talked about at the top. Each guy has his own prostate cancer equation.
JN: Absolutely. The peace of mind that you know that they can treat this is refreshing. Somebody dying of prostate cancer is at age 70, today, is almost unheard of. Seventy isn’t that old, 65 is not old. I know that every guy who makes it to his eighties or nineties is probably going to have prostate cancer. If it comes up earlier, there is no need to cut your life short. Think about your family, your lover, your kids, your parents, your siblings. The big question is, why didn’t you get it treated? My advice is go get yourself checked every year.
BM: Now we are going to work our way toward the conclusion. Just as we like to start from the same place, we would like to end from the same place, and our final question is, if you had a private audience with somebody who had just been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and if there was one gem of advice you would like to share with them, what would it be?
JN: It’s okay to get mad and be venting that you got cancer. I’ll say it loud and clear, cancer stinks, but knowing you can fight it and potentially survive it, then, don’t be shy about it. Yes, it could dehumanizing or demoralizing that right there in your crotch, you’ve got cancer. That’s the reality and it is not going to go away by itself unless you deal with it through an approved medical procedure. And if you are not happy with the first urologist you go to, he is not the only guy in the world. Look up somebody else. Go get a second opinion. Get a third PSA test from somebody who has never seen you before. Go to a different lab. There are ways around being scared about what you are about to go through that you can calm yourself down emotionally because the one thing every doctor has ever told me is if you are freaking out as a medical patient, your journey is not going to go as well as the person with a positive attitude. Granted, not all cancers are as easily rectified, per se, as easy as prostate. You are the only one to know that you need to get it done, but when they tell you that you have the ‘C’ word, go get it fixed. And good luck! Good luck with everything, the emotions, the anger, the urge to purge that drives you crazy sometimes waiting for the radiation, all that stuff. It’s only temporary and the upside is tremendous and a lot more.
BM: All right, Jim, outstanding. We mentioned at the top that we hoped your story would provide education and inspiration, and what you have had to say checks both boxes in spades. So, Jim, thanks for being with us. We really appreciate your time and your input.
JN: Thanks for the invitation and the opportunity to be a little evangelical when it comes to this because the life you save will be your own.
BM: Excellent, Jim, thanks, and again, wise words. That’s going to wrap up this edition of Cancer Interviews. We hope that Jim’s story can be of aid to you or a loved one. So, until next time, we’ll see you on down the road.
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SHOW NOTES
TITLE: Jim Nedelka, Prostate Cancer Survivor – New York, New York, USA
Jim Nedelka is a prostate cancer survivor. When he learned of his diagnosis, he wasted no time, considered his options and immediately chose radiation treatment. Because of early detection and his proactive approach, Jim has been cancer free since 2017.
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Time Stamps:
07:04 How Jim learned he had prostate cancer.
13:15 After learning he had cancer, he undergoes a biopsy.
14:42 Jim names his treatment options.
15:40 His treatment choice.
18:22 Treatment-related discomfort.
22:30 Jim says post-treatment, there were no complications.
25:52 Asked what he cannot do post-treatment that he could do before his diagnosis.
KEYWORDS (tags):
cancer
prostate cancer
cancer interviews
radiation treatment
prostatectomy
bruce morton
jim nedelka
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