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Chapter 1
Admission Requirements
It's been five years since I've had a prostate, and I miss it the way I
miss my youth-as a melancholy reminder of what was, rather than
what isn't; a time of endless possibilities, reduced now to limited
dreams. Call it wistful thinking.
I can't say I didn't think about my prostate before I decided
to get rid of it; I had no choice. Almost every day, there was, and
continues to be, enough media attention on prostate cancer to keep it
a top of mind subject - especially if you're a man who's hit fifty, and
are aware that it's been more prevalent an occurrence than breast
cancer.
The prostate is the touted gland of the 90's and everyone's
now free to talk about it. Time magazine gave it eight pages and a
cover blurb. The tabloids feature it as one of the top ten diseases
you' d want some South American dictator to acquire. Even a condo
neighbor, a man whose name I can't even recall, sidles up to me in the
elevator and asks me if I've read about Merv Griffin's having been
diagnosed with it. "Yeah, his PSA was pretty high," I respond. Of
course, I'd read the stupid article! Even without a prostate, even
as I write this account, I am still drawn to any print or broadcast piece
that even hints of a prostate mention. Just because you're discharged
from the battle, however scarred but alive, doesn't mean you stop
following the news from the front. If anything, you follow it even more
assiduously You know people are out there fighting for every prostate, and well, attention must be paid. You're as drawn to prostate
cancer news as a hemorrhoid sufferer is to yet another ad touting
relief.
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