Dr. Strangeglove or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the balm

I like my urologist, but I'm not sure if our relationship will end well. He's smart, skilled and he showed genuine compassion for me when he delivered my biopsy results and even during the biopsy itself (those of you with time should Google "prostate biopsy" now...I'll wait)... he decided to take a couple additional core samples than we had planned on..."I really apologize for the extra couple minutes this is taking." I remember unclenching my teeth and saying, "No worries...while you're up there take your time and be sure and get everything you need." Yeah, I said something really brave like that.

I first met him after a referral from my GP...after my PSA test came back high for my age. I was lead into the exam room to wait. There was a box of rubber gloves and three tubes of lubricating gel (all in various states of depletion) on the counter. Nothing else. I had many minutes to ponder this. I had read enough to know that there was nothing high-tech about a DRE despite the word "digital" at the beginning. I'm proposing renaming it the "Analog Rectal Exam." It was over soon enough, and while it was uncomfortable, I fared better than Peter Griffin did on his: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHKTE75dgE4 ...although ironically the EXACT same people were out in the main waiting room of my urologist's office as Peter's. I would soon find out that the DRE is just the tip of the iceberg of prostate cancer indignities....a mere paper cut compared to the butt kicking to follow (thank you sir, may I have another?)

My urologist says that while I certainly do not need to rush to a treatment, surgery is the ONLY sensible option for a man of my age. I believe he has my best outcome in mind when he says that...but I'm just not so sure...I have been researching other options (another topic for another day) I bet doctors just LOVE the Internet (again, another topic for another day)...