Thought I'd share this with you all. It was created last year--I didn't know until Friday that it had been published. Several good messages in it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4O6L60cXrY

Cary

I love when guys beat it. Keep boring holes in the sky. Good message, can't be said enough.

Marty

I should emphasize that in my case, my PSA had risen from the previous year's level, but not dramatically--and not to any level that would alarm any doc. Also, I had no other symptoms--not the usual urinary issues that guys complain about, and neither my regular doc nor the urologist felt anything out of the ordinary in the digital examination. So when the urologist told me I had cancer after the biopsies came back, I was truly floored. But the recommendation of both my urologist and my oncologist was not to delay treatment, and I'm really glad that I followed their advice.

Cary

Cary,

Thank you for sharing this with us; glad you beat it! It is a good reminder to the rest of us to get frequent check-ups as we age.

Good for you, Cary. That's a scary experience that can bring the toughest guys to tears. What sort of hoops did you have to jump through with FAA aeromedical?

My AME told me that your cancer risk switches from testicular to prostate almost overnight at age 40, or so the data suggests.

The hoops are more lengthy than difficult. First is that all of the treatment has to be over, and it has to have been "successful"--though considering the docs won't use the term "cured", I'm not sure what the FAA means by "successful". In any event, I was grounded from October through May, plus a 3 week hiatus waiting for the FAA to react.

My diagnosis was in September, my radiation treatment actually started in November, and it was finished on January 14th. So the time from January 14th until late May was recovering from the radiation (extreme fatigue), periodic PSAs to prove that zapping had done the job, recommendations from my oncologist and urologist, and a standard Class II, deferred until the FAA would react.

My AME is very experienced and has a good relationship up the line, so I think that had a lot to do with getting it through the FAA relatively quickly. Then the letter came. The SI letter is written in horrible language--makes you think as you read the first paragraph that you'll never fly again, and then says you will.

From then on, it's jumping through the specific hoops spelled out in the SI letter, whatever they may be. It used to be that the letter had to be with the pilot at all times while flying, but that's been lifted.

Cary