Trafika Europe 6 - Arabesque

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

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