Paul G.

About Paul G.

No truer words were spoken when it was expressed that prostate treatment is a team endeavor.

The captain on that team is my lovely wife Marie, who never broke stride in her efficient housekeeping –and affection–during the entire course of my treatment, which includes the healthiest modes of cooking on the USA east coast!

Without these quiet expressions of love each day, the prostate cancer treatments could have been more challenging–having to stay working (as a high school Teacher & Adjunct Professor) at same the time.

Anyone who receives such a life-changing diagnosis needs to know that panic & despair are not options, nor should there be.

It is almost surreal to even write about this, when one considers “regular” life in the years before.

None of us has a crystal ball, and all we can practically do is reduce our health risk factors, and keep physically active.

Those modes do effectively “factor in” under such adverse conditions.

This is an excellent chance to also give big kudos also to the entire treatment team at Staten Island (NYC) University Hospital Northwell Health, with their utilization of the Calypso IMRT manufactured by VARIAN technologies.

Both entities well-deserve national / international recognition for the world-class healthcare treatment work that they do every day.

This superb equipment doses out specifically calculated beams of gamma rays to obliterate the cancer cells–in a completely non-invasive technique which hopefully becomes available for many others in the future.

Had this mode of prostate cancer treatment been out only a few years earlier, my older brother (US Naval Cmdr Peter V. Jr) would be alive today. This mentor to so many people in his life could have lived much longer–if not for prostate cancer.

So in the present day, that team and that medical equipment manufacturer are now at least chalking up their prostate cancer survivors every day, very thankfully! And thanks for this opportunity to tell this story for the awareness of others (VARIAN, and definite optimism) and hopefully positive outcomes for them as well.

P J G

PS – If I did send in a photograph of my VERY “camera-shy” lovely care-giving wife, she wouldn’t speak with me for months ! :>)