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ablation
me question everything. At
seventy years old, he was
still in shape. He invited me
to have a coffee. I talked to
him about my operation and I
asked for his opinion. He said
very formally: “My friend, you
are young, do curietherapy!
Today, doctors operate less
and less and they preserve
erectile function. That is
important. Yes, I know there
is a risk. The cancer can come
back; but, you will continue
to have a normal sex life and
I would even say a good one.
I know what I am talking
about.”
He repeated the word,
separating the syllables: “cur-
ie-the-ra-py!Withthisprocess,
radiation is put into the body
to treat the prostate. The
radiation kills the cancerous
cells. Afterwards, you won’t
have any unpleasantness.
It ’s a wonderful medical
advancement.” He also named
a bunch of people who had
gambled on this method. I
listened to him but I couldn’t
stop from thinking of Damien.
Damien was a friend of mine
who spend ten years treating
his spreading disease, only to
end up suffering horribly and
dying. I was never a poker
player. My father taught me
to be prudent. Sometimes, I
view it as a fault. There is a
fine line between prudence
and cowardice. But daring to
gamble on this operation was
well beyond my ability.
I went back to see Professor
J.F. to interrogate him about
this famous curietherapy. He
confirmed what my professor
had said, but he added:
“Your case is different; there
is something evil in your
prostate. You need to have it
fully eradicated. You have an
extremely aggressive type of