About Me
I’m Martin. Before my diagnosis, I lived an active life — walking several miles a day for work, enjoying the outdoors, cooking, and traveling. I didn’t feel sick. No pain. No fatigue. No warning signs that would have made me think, I should get this checked.
How This Started
Like some people who feel healthy, I had one simple routine I stuck to: annual checkups. At age 56, I went in for a routine physical, expecting everything to be normal.
What I Noticed
I felt fine — but my doctor noticed something that didn’t match my usual baseline numbers. My PSA level was elevated. It wasn’t a symptom I could feel. It was a change in my blood screening results. “I couldn’t believe it,” I remember thinking. “I felt fine.”
My Decisions Along the Way
Because I kept up with my checkups, my healthcare team could catch a change from normal, and I was able to take action quickly by following through on the referral and every round of testing rather than waiting to see if the number would settle on its own.
Why It Was Easy to Wait
I felt completely healthy, and an elevated number on a lab report doesn’t carry the same urgency as a symptom you can feel. It would have been easy to assume the number was a fluke and let it go unless my doctor had flagged it.
The Moment Things Changed
The moment my PSA came back outside my normal baseline, an abstract number became something I had to act on — the urologist referral and the MRI that followed were what turned a routine checkup into a diagnosis.
What Happened Next
My doctor referred me to a urologist, and I followed through quickly with second and third opinions and additional testing, including an MRI. That extra step confirmed what I never would have suspected: Stage 2 prostate cancer.
What Would Have Helped Sooner
Nothing would have caught this sooner than the annual checkup already did — the habit of routine screening, rather than waiting for a symptom, is exactly what worked here.
What I Learned and What I Want Others to Know
Early detection isn’t always a feeling — it can be a pattern, a baseline number you pay attention to. Sometimes the earliest change isn’t something you feel; it’s something your body shows through routine blood work. I’ve told all my friends and sons: guys over 35, it’s no longer just an “old man’s” disease — make sure you’re screened every year, and if you notice health changes, follow through even sooner. Prostate cancer screening can be as simple as a PSA blood test, and sometimes a digital rectal exam (DRE), depending on your doctor.
Symptoms
- Asymptomatic found at annual physical
