Coaching Men With Prostate Cancer

I’m a professional coach, and I have prostate cancer.

I became a coach because coaching makes sense to me.

Some of us have problems that do not require a mental health professional; we want help with goal-setting, mission statements, and life strategies.

We know we can improve our lives, we are just not sure how.

We may not be neurotic, but we have big decisions and stubborn dilemmas.

Coaching can be particularly effective for people making transitions and facing tough choices: those who lose their jobs (or would like to); newly divorced spouses searching for new directions; those groping with the challenges of aging and retirement; and, those of us with health problems.

Once you are diagnosed with PC, you know what I mean.

It is absolutely, 100%, a trip down the rabbit hole.

You’re PSA is elevated.

Should you have a biopsy, understanding that some men have died from infection from prostate biopsies?

You have had a biopsy and been diagnosed with an indolent, low-grade tumor.

Treat it or not?

I love the euphemism “treat it”.

Treatments, in this context, are no treats.

The conventional wisdom is no different than it was 100 years ago: radiate or remove: “the choice between the hot ray and the cold knife,” as Siddhartha Mukherjee describes it in The Emperor of all Maladies, the Pulitzer Prize winning “biography of cancer”.

Both come along with side effects that would make Alexander the Great pause.

As a coach with prostate cancer, I wish I had a coach with prostate cancer.

If he also appreciated good blues, that would be even better.

Most of us with prostate issues find ourselves in a world of medical opinion.

Some of us comply; some of us are skeptical.

No matter where you fall, if you have PC, having a coach to help you make wise decisions can be well worth it.