Terrell Williams diagnosed with prostate cancer

[Real fan 02]

Not much advice to give but I do know he is on top of his counts and his appointments. He stays active and watches what he eats and is a light drinker. Just one of those things. Runs in the family so at 54 I'm also good about my checkups.

I lost a family member to it. This was in the early 90s. With the advancements today chances are so much greater to beat it, and live a healthy life. Like yourself it also runs in my family as well.

 

[mgteich]

That sucks. Don't blame him for being out and putting his health first.

???
Has he really been putting his health first? I see it in the opposite way. He coached and wanted to coach until he literally wasn't physically able to perform his duties.

I don't blame him in any way. Health issues are scary and confusing.
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I question the team's attitude toward medical issues. If WIlliams were a key executive in a more private company, He would have been a very thorough physical when they saw the first set of symptoms. Some companies (most?) send their newly hired executive to somewhere like Mayo Clinic for a 2-3 day in-house hospital physical meant for executives (cost used to be 2-3K). We still don't know what he is dealing with. There is more here that prostate cancer.

 

[mgteich]

I'm sorry that you and your family have had to deal with it. We give each other a hard time talking football, but we don't know what people are going through. I hope everything is alright.

Thank you for your concern. I have been cancer-free for over 5 years. It is less for my brother, but he is fine. He is still getting some follow-up radiation treatment for a bit of cancer that had spread outside the prostate. I caught is before it spread.

 

[mgteich]

If you feel comfortable doing so, please share what the day-by-day challenges are for someone dealing with this. As you note, much depends on how far it has spread. On the other hand I think I recall learning that prostate cancer tends to be an atypically slow-growing form of the disease. So for instance, would that possibly allow room for someone to work, say, part-time while receiving treatment?

Different folks and different countries prefer different treatments. For older men with small amounts of cancer well enclosed within the prostate, watch and wait is certainly best. Growth ius usually very slow. Some prefer treatment more quickly than others, preferring to start hormone therapy. Hormone therapy prevents any further spreading. However, there are many side effects and the patient needing to be committed to much physical therapy in the gym heavy duty 3 times a week). And dietary changes usually help.

BTW. hormone treatment is the preferred treatment in much of Europe, especially in the UK because of the high cost of surgery or radiation/chemo,
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IF THERE IS A SERIOUS AMOUNT OF CANCER OR IT IS SPREADING
Then immediate action is warranted, along with the hormone therapy to stop the spread. Choice include surgery (usually for younger me) or some kind of radiation/chemo.

For me, almost all areas of my prostate were 85% cancerous. I immediately started hormone therapy and continued until 6 months after radiation and I had a 45-day protocol of chemo. I also immediately (even before my biopsy went on a vegetarian diet which I also maintained until 6 months after the completion of chemo. Without the diet most have considerable weight gain. I didn't do all the physical gym stuff. The tradeoff was being low energy and losing muscle mass. Some say that they didn't have the energy to do all the therapy. The opposite is the truth. It is the therapy that gives you more energy.

As an aside, I have sufficient background to be able to understand the vast amount of literature available with the help of various websites dedicated to helping those with prostate cancer. I lots of info from Johns Hopkins, and also from Mayo Clinic and Harvard sites. Also, I am in a retirement community. I got lots of info from folks with direct experience. But knowing what to do is very, very difficult. Experts and oncologists disagree. The local urologists were worse than being not useful.
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MAKE NO MISTAKE
For folks like me, the medical issues would have been #1 as soon as there were symptoms. I understand why folks wait. Symptoms just don't disappear on their own. I well understand natural treatments, Asian medicine and diet change. That certainly helps and will cure lots of different symptoms and will help no matter what the treatment chosen.
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BOTTOM LINE
I can see some ONE person on the team calling him for occasional discussions and advice. That would help him and the team. But I would not count on his participation until at least mini-camp.

 

[n1997y]

A friend and former housemate died from prostrate cancer a few years ago. He went through hell for a couple of years, and left his wife and young kids. He was vocally dissatisfied with his health insurance for not covering aggressive early treatment.

Don’t mess with it.

 

[mgteich]

A friend and former housemate died from prostrate cancer a few years ago. He went through hell for a couple of years, and left his wife and young kids. He was vocally dissatisfied with his health insurance for not covering aggressive early treatment.

Don’t mess with it.

Insurance is a terrible part of this. As you say, sometimes they won't authorize early treatment.

To be clear, I do think that waiting is fine for some, with 3-month checkups. But I too favor early intervention. I favor radiation. If one is willing to deal with the side effects of hormone treatment, I would also recommend it for 9 months (3 months early and 6 months after radiation). The hormone treatment makes radiation more likely to succeed, but I can certainly understand not having it, especially if there is little danger of spreading.

 

[Tunescribe]

Different folks and different countries prefer different treatments. For older men with small amounts of cancer well enclosed within the prostate, watch and wait is certainly best. Growth ius usually very slow. Some prefer treatment more quickly than others, preferring to start hormone therapy. Hormone therapy prevents any further spreading. However, there are many side effects and the patient needing to be committed to much physical therapy in the gym heavy duty 3 times a week). And dietary changes usually help.

BTW. hormone treatment is the preferred treatment in much of Europe, especially in the UK because of the high cost of surgery or radiation/chemo,
============
IF THERE IS A SERIOUS AMOUNT OF CANCER OR IT IS SPREADING
Then immediate action is warranted, along with the hormone therapy to stop the spread. Choice include surgery (usually for younger me) or some kind of radiation/chemo.

For me, almost all areas of my prostate were 85% cancerous. I immediately started hormone therapy and continued until 6 months after radiation and I had a 45-day protocol of chemo. I also immediately (even before my biopsy went on a vegetarian diet which I also maintained until 6 months after the completion of chemo. Without the diet most have considerable weight gain. I didn't do all the physical gym stuff. The tradeoff was being low energy and losing muscle mass. Some say that they didn't have the energy to do all the therapy. The opposite is the truth. It is the therapy that gives you more energy.

As an aside, I have sufficient background to be able to understand the vast amount of literature available with the help of various websites dedicated to helping those with prostate cancer. I lots of info from Johns Hopkins, and also from Mayo Clinic and Harvard sites. Also, I am in a retirement community. I got lots of info from folks with direct experience. But knowing what to do is very, very difficult. Experts and oncologists disagree. The local urologists were worse than being not useful.
===========
MAKE NO MISTAKE
For folks like me, the medical issues would have been #1 as soon as there were symptoms. I understand why folks wait. Symptoms just don't disappear on their own. I well understand natural treatments, Asian medicine and diet change. That certainly helps and will cure lots of different symptoms and will help no matter what the treatment chosen.
==========
BOTTOM LINE
I can see some ONE person on the team calling him for occasional discussions and advice. That would help him and the team. But I would not count on his participation until at least mini-camp.

Thank you for this. Just intuitively, it occurs to me that a primarily plant-based diet along with regular vigorous exercise—especially later in life—would be highly recommended as a hedge against this disease.

I trust it’s fully in your rear-view mirror by now, right?

 

[mgteich]

Thank you for this. Just intuitively, it occurs to me that a primarily plant-based diet along with regular vigorous exercise—especially later in life—would be highly recommended as a hedge against this disease.

I trust it’s fully in your rear-view mirror by now, right?

yes, cancer free for 5 years, and I still have 6month checkups, although 1 year is really OK.

Thank you for this. Just intuitively, it occurs to me that a primarily plant-based diet along with regular vigorous exercise—especially later in life—would be highly recommended as a hedge against this disease.

I trust it’s fully in your rear-view mirror by now, right?

You are correct with regard to the prevention qualities of a plant-based diet. This applies to lots of different diseases. I would mention that even worse than meat is ultra-processed foods and of course added sugar.

With regard to exercise, vigorous is not really necessary, regular is much more important, but even a little helps a lot in prevention.