Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: From Riverside Health System, this is the Healthy youy Podcast where we talk about a range of health related topics focused on improving your physical and mental health. We chat with our providers, team members, patients and caregivers to learn more about how to maintain a healthy lifestyle and improve overall physical and mental health. So let's dive in to learn more about becoming a healthier you.
All right. I'm really excited to have with me in the Healthy youy Studio today, Myron Majors. Myron is a prostate cancer survivor and we're going to be hearing his testimony today.
Welcome to the Healthy youy the Podcast where we explore everyday health topics. I'm your host, Frankie Myers.
Today we're joined by someone whose courage and determination are inspiring, not just in the Riverside community, but to anyone facing a difficult diagnosis. Myra Majors is here to share his journey as a prostate cancer survivor. How he faced his diagnosis head on, the role his family played in his healing journey, and why support systems matter so much in the fight against cancer. Myron, we're so honored to have you join us today.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: Well, thank you for having me. I'm really honored to be here. It's my pleasure.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: All right. All right.
Before we get into your cancer journey, tell us a little bit about yourself, your family, your career and. And your connection to Riverside.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: Well, a little bit about me. I don't like to talk a lot about me, but I'm a retired Air Force. You may be able to tell from my logo on my shirt.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: Been married for 33 years.
My wife and I have two wonderful children. Grown now, thankfully.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: So you're empty nest.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: We're empty nesters.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: Okay, okay, okay.
And your connection to Riverside?
[00:01:57] Speaker B: I've had all of my treatment for prostate cancer at Riverside. And then another big connection now is the men in Blue group.
[00:02:06] Speaker A: Okay, very good, very good.
What are your hobbies? What do you do for fun?
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Well, my wife and I, we like to travel. So we travel as much as we can.
We go to the gym often, so we spend a lot of time in the gym.
I personally, I do martial arts. She doesn't, but I do, and I really enjoy doing that. And the traveling is the big deal because we go to see our kids quite a bit.
[00:02:32] Speaker A: Okay, and what is the Men in Blue?
[00:02:35] Speaker B: That is our prostate cancer survivors support group at Riverside.
[00:02:41] Speaker A: Okay, very good, very good. Well, thank you. Thank you for all that you do. Mara, let's go back to the beginning.
You went in for a routine checkup back in late 2013.
[00:02:55] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:56] Speaker A: And something unexpected happened. Can you walk us through Seeing your primary care provider for your initial screening for prostate?
[00:03:06] Speaker B: Well, I went in for that routine checkup. I'm used to doing a lot of routine checkups because military background, they made us go for checkers.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: Screening was important. Right.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: So I was having some urinary flow weakness. So I told my primary care provider about that. And when she looked at my PSA numbers, they were a little bit high. And then she did the digital rectal exam and she found out, well, your prostate is also a little bit swollen.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: So she said, let's just monitor that. And so she said, get your test done again in six months. And we did it again. And the prostate or the PSA was a little bit higher.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: And after that she said, well, maybe you ought to go to see a urologist. So I went to the urologist and we talked about what to do next. And the urologist said, let's do a biopsy to determine where or not you have cancer. So I went through the whole biopsy thing and he said, eventually it did come back that I did have cancer.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: So as it relates to some of the signs and symptoms that you were feeling, the flow was really the only thing that was. Talk a little bit about the symptoms you felt early on to help some of our viewers.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: Yeah, there was really no pain.
I wasn't having any pain. No blood in my urine, no burning, anything like that. It's just that I had my urine flow was a little bit weak. And so that led me to tell my doctor. And then from there we, we went through the other test.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: Okay, very good, very good.
How did you feel in that moment during the discussions and, and what was going on and what happened next? You know, talk a little bit about your emotional state at that time.
[00:05:07] Speaker B: Well, it was kind of like what we see with most of our, the new guys to our group, they come to the group and they have this thousand yard stare. And I felt the same way. I was. What is going on? You hear the word cancer and everything else just goes blank and all you hear is cancer, cancer, cancer.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: And the doctors are talking to you and I had no idea what they were saying.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: You're not even comprehending any of that. It's like, right, yes, yes, yes.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: But eventually, you know, you come out of the cloud and you start to try to process what they're saying and where you're going to go. What are you going to do next?
[00:05:44] Speaker A: Absolutely.
Biopsies can be such a difficult part of the process, both physically and emotionally. What was it like for you to Go through not just one, but multiple biopsies.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: Well, the first one was definitely not fun.
They said, you're going to feel a little bit of pressure. Well, it was more than pressure. It was like being shot.
And I've never been shot, but I could imagine what it was like.
And then it came back indeterminate.
I said, okay, well, what does that mean? When I talked to my doctor, he said, well, it means we may have to do this again.
And at that point, I was, what?
I don't want to do this again.
And it was a shocker. And he did do it again. We determined to go ahead because he said to me, I don't want to do this to you again any more than you want it to happen to you again. So that kind of made me feel a little bit better about the process.
And so we did that, and that's when we discovered, okay, I did have cancer.
[00:06:54] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. You made the decision pretty quickly to go ahead with surgery rather than monitoring. What led you to make that decision?
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Well, we discussed it. I discussed it with the urologist, and then he referred me to the surgeon, and we all had the discussion that if you go through radiology or radiation treatment, later on they discovered more cancer, you can't have the surgery.
So I decided, well, I want to get this out of me, get it over with and be done with it. And so that's why I decided I wasn't going to have any more children. So we're down the road. I just want to get back to normal.
[00:07:40] Speaker A: Right.
Okay. And thankfully, your recovery after surgery was smooth. No major side effects. But your story didn't end there.
Take us there.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: Yes, unfortunately, there was a spot that was growing outside of my prostate, so they got everything that was in the prostate. But as someone with our group puts it, it's like having a big field of grass, and then there's one little weed that's in that grass, and then it starts to spread.
So that's what was causing me to have a rise in my psa. And so we had to go through the process again. Okay, let's investigate this.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Right.
Okay. That must have been difficult.
I can tell, to feel like you had put cancer behind you and then, you know, another round of tests and treatment.
How did you process that news the second time around compared to your first or your initial diagnosis?
[00:08:47] Speaker B: Yeah, the first time, I. Like I said, I thought that I could put this all behind me and just. Couple of snips, it's gone, and I'm done. I can get back to Normal. Well, when it came back, I'm thinking, well, how far along is this? Is it just in that one spot? Is it through the rest of my body? Is this something that I really have to worry about now? And that was a little bit more concerning the second time around than first.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: Yes.
One thing I noticed that stands out in your story is how much your family has been by your side.
What did that support mean to you? And. And how do you. How do you feel? How did it help your treatment?
[00:09:25] Speaker B: Oh, that was.
[00:09:25] Speaker A: That was your recovery treatment. All of that.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: Everything. Everything I went through from the beginning.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Multiple stages of support.
[00:09:36] Speaker B: My wife was right there, and she was a godsend for me because I'm. I'm pretty independent, so I.
You know, I don't like to be pampered, stuff like that. But when I did my surgery and I really couldn't move the first few days, she was bringing me meals in bed and everything, and I said, oh, man, this is great. Maybe I'll milk this for really nice.
[00:10:01] Speaker A: Right.
[00:10:03] Speaker B: But what. One of the things that was really great for me, it gets me kind of choked up.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: Yes.
Sorry. No, no. Take your time. Thank you. Thank you for sharing.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: Yeah. My daughter was supposed to go on a field trip.
She's gonna go out of the country with her Spanish class.
[00:10:24] Speaker A: Right.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: It's when she found out.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Yes. She.
[00:10:29] Speaker B: She said, no, dad, I'm not going anywhere.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: Right.
[00:10:32] Speaker B: So that was really.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: That meant a lot to you, I'm sure.
Yes. Yes.
Look at you now. Right?
[00:10:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: Look wonderful. That you. You look great. So, yeah. That family support, I'm sure it meant the world to you.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: Yeah, it did.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: And I can tell you deserve that, so appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah.
So have you been a part of the Riverside Men in Blue group for a long period of time?
[00:11:04] Speaker B: The first time around, when I had my surgery, I had the opportunity, but I thought it was all behind me. I said, okay, well, I'm not going to join the group.
[00:11:12] Speaker A: Right. Right.
[00:11:13] Speaker B: And then the second time around, when I found out that it had come back, I said, oh, man, I need to find out what other guys are going through. So I went just to check it out, and I found out this is. This is a good place. This is a great place.
And I must give a shout out to our prostate treatment navigator, Ms. Mary Kleckler. She's been fantastic, and I'm sure all of the other guys in the group would agree that her advocacy and her encouragement for the group.
[00:11:42] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:11:43] Speaker B: It's been amazing.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: Yes. Well, I just appreciate you and Your willingness to talk about your journey and to share. I'm a healthcare professional, but as I interact with males in my own family, there is such a fear with the preventative part of checking on your prostate, which is a huge barrier to overcome. So I try to advocate and, you know, talk to them about the importance of that. So is there anything that you could say, you know, to support our men in doing those preventative checks and how important that is? Because there's. There is a huge fear with doing it.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I know I've run into a lot of guys that they are saying they don't want to get a digital rectal exam.
It's not going to kill you, but the cancer can absolutely, absolutely go. And you need to go and find out.
And it's better to go and find out that there's nothing going on than to wait until it's too late and you find out there's not much else they can do.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: Absolutely. Well, thank you for that. We appreciate you sharing that. Myron, you've also mentioned that several of your cousins went through prostate cancer around the same time you did.
That's not something we hear about every day. How did that experience affect you?
[00:13:10] Speaker B: Well, I don't remember whether I told my cousin or he told me that he was going through it, but we got into that discussion and we were talking about it then. Then he was telling me two of his brothers had it, and we were all having it around the same time. Our surgery.
[00:13:31] Speaker A: Yes. Yes.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: We're, like, within 44 years of each other, and our mothers are sisters. So we're thinking, okay, well, maybe this is something that's coming down, passed down through our mothers.
[00:13:42] Speaker A: Right.
[00:13:42] Speaker B: But later on, I found that there was no real evidence of that. But still, it was like, it was good having somebody that I could relate to being related to them in the first place, that we all know what we're going through. And we've since had a lot of discussions, try to support each other with that.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: That's really good.
And your sister faced her own battle with ovarian cancer. How has that shaped your perspective on cancer? And the fact that family resiliency, for sure.
[00:14:16] Speaker B: Yeah, that one was tough for all of us because she wasn't ever in the military, so she didn't get routine checkups. She waited until there was something that didn't feel right.
So for her, she was having pain in her abdomen, and she thought, okay, well, they were going to remove some fibroids, and when they went in, she was supposed to go in for Like a two hour surgery. My older sister was there with her and six hours later she calls me and says she's still in the operating room and they're doing a hysterectomy. So, yeah, she had it tough. And then the follow up to that was really hard for her because she had to go through chemotherapy and radiation and it was really tough.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: Yeah, she had a different.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:15:06] Speaker A: Different journey.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Very different journey than me.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: Yes. Yes. Knowing that history and seeing it affect multiple family members, what does that make you think about when it comes to awareness and early detection?
[00:15:22] Speaker B: Do some research.
If there's any indication that any of your family members have cancer of any kind, you should check into prostate cancer for males and for sure go get your checkups and exams. And the earlier you get it, the earlier you detect it, the better it's going to be able for you to get it treated.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: Right. And I think your story is a testament of that. Look at you today. You look great.
Sounds like you feel good.
So that's, that's awesome.
Now you're looking forward to your next follow up in September of 2025. What does that look like for you today?
[00:16:12] Speaker B: I'm hoping that when I see my doctor, he's gonna say the same thing that he said the, like the last we're gonna say.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: He is gonna say the same thing.
[00:16:21] Speaker B: Well, he'll say you're my perfect patient and that all that was new.
Really good for me to hear.
[00:16:28] Speaker A: Right.
[00:16:28] Speaker B: He said you're not having any bad, bad side effects. You're not having any pain. I don't have to recommend any other treatments for you. And you're just dealing with the side effects you do have because there's some pretty strange side effects from Lupron.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: Yes, yes.
[00:16:46] Speaker B: Hot flashes. One thing that I gained a lot of respect for menopausal women when I started doing that.
[00:16:52] Speaker A: Yes, yes.
[00:16:52] Speaker B: And there's some weight gain and I had a lot of hair loss and my pecs turned into small breasts and that was kind of creepy.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: Creepy.
[00:17:04] Speaker B: Yeah, for me. I mean, nothing against women.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: Yes, yes, yes.
Okay. What helps you stay grounded?
[00:17:14] Speaker B: Well, besides the support from my family, just looking at life as it's the opportunity to just enjoy life and they help me do that a lot. I gotta give some props to my son. He's.
He's like the most mild mannered person I know and he never gets mad about anything. And when I think that I'm gonna go off the deep end about something, I just think about him and what would he. What he would do about that situation.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: That's really good.
What have you learned about yourself through this journey that you didn't know before?
[00:17:51] Speaker B: Well, before I thought I could do anything. That's just my attitude. If I put my mind to it, I'm going to go straight into it and get it done. But I didn't know that. I never expected to go through a lot of the things that I'm going through with the second round, especially with the Lupron and all that. But I did learn that I can make adjustments to my life and my lifestyle in order to be able to continue on.
I thought for sure I'd be the same person that I was when I was 25. Here I'm almost 70, and that I'm not that person anymore.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: Right? Yeah. Our minds may still think.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: My brain.
My brain tells me I'm 25.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: Our bodies tell us we're not.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: My body tells me my brain's going crazy.
[00:18:38] Speaker A: If you were talking to someone who just received a prostate cancer diagnosis, maybe they're scared, overwhelmed, or unsure of what's coming next. What would you say to them?
[00:18:50] Speaker B: We get that a lot. In the men in blue group, the guys come in. I was talking earlier about the thousand yard stare. We see them almost every month. We get new guys in there that look like they're just completely lost. And we all tell them the same thing. One of our themes is it's not a death sentence.
You go in, make sure that you get all the information that you can. Talk to your doctors and just learn about yourself and get a good support system. And if you've gotten it early enough, you can get through this.
[00:19:28] Speaker A: Absolutely.
That's great.
Thank you for that. And for those listening today who may be caring for someone with prostate cancer diagnosis, what would you want to know?
[00:19:46] Speaker B: The support that you can provide to someone, a loved one, who's going through prostate cancer.
It means the world to them and you can help them get through that. You help brighten their day, do everything you can to lift them up. And because going into a depression over this is probably one of the worst things you can do.
[00:20:11] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:20:12] Speaker B: So you keep them lifted up and be there for them when they need you.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: Yes. Yes.
That's such a empowering and powerful message. Myron, thank you for sharing your journey with us and showing how resilient support and more importantly, a positive mindset can make all the difference in the world.
Come back anytime.
[00:20:39] Speaker B: Thank you very much. I really appreciate you having me.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: You're welcome. And to our listeners, if Myron's story moved you, inspired you, or gave you hope.
Please share it and be sure to check the episode description for resources on prostate cancer awareness, screening and support.
Until next time, stay healthy.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Healthy you. We're so glad you were able to join us today and learn more about this topic. If you would like to explore more, go to riversideonline.com.
