My name is Chris Scherzer. Today, I'm a 55-year-old male. I live in Scottsdale, Arizona. I'm in the insurance business, so I'm an employee benefits consultant. And I got diagnosed when I turned 50. So I went in and did a wellness check with my doctor. And since I've been in benefits, I tell people all the time, go in and get your preventive exams done. And this one really paid off for me. So I went in, my doctor called me a few days later and said, "Hey, your PSA is 14.6." And I said, "Is that good?" And he said, "No, that's not good." So he proceeded to send me to a urologist. The urologist did a biopsy and shortly after that I found I had prostate cancer. The problem was I didn't know what the prostate actually did in the body, so I had a lot of learning to do, but what a scary diagnosis. I wasn't sure what to do next.

But that's my journey into it. And that was in 2019 when I first got diagnosed. I went in, they did a biopsy in the office, in the urologist office. It was a 12 core biopsy. I was awake, and then the doctor called me in a few days later after I went to labs and told me I had prostate cancer. It's a big shock to me. I have no side effects. I didn't have any issues going on. It was really out of the blue, to be frank with you. But the ironic thing was my dad had been diagnosed with prostate cancer just months before I did and he was age 82, which is when you think you're going to get it. But yeah. So we got diagnosed in the same year, only months apart.

We didn't really have a history of that in my family. My dad's got three brothers and none of them had prostate cancer. One of them had pancreatic cancer and passed away several years ago. I found out from my mom, my mom told me that my dad had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. I was a Gleason six. He was also a Gleason six at the time. He ended up doing 42 rounds of low dose radiation. And for an 82-year-old guy, he's pretty tough. He's still around and kicking. He's 87 now. He's doing great. Really, really ironic. I came to find out just this last year after some testing at Mayo that there's actually a gene associated with prostate cancer and I have it, and so I got it from my father. So we commiserated over that a little bit, but that's really where it came from.

That was interesting. So I got diagnosed and immediately the doctor wanted to take me into surgery. I'm a plotter, so I really wanted to look around and see what the options were. I wanted to slow it down. I did my research as soon as I found out that I had prostate cancer, and I was a Gleason 6, so it wasn't going to spread really fast, and I had some time. So I took that time. I looked around, I talked to several different doctors. I went to radiologists. I went to other surgeons. I started look at HIFU. I looked at TULSA-PRO. Ultimately, I decided to do HIFU. That was a decision I made based on the fact that I was a Gleason six. I was 50 years old. I was really looking to make sure that I had the minimal amount of side effects, but I still wanted to try to eradicate the cancer.

I went down that road. A friend of mine actually invest in the HIFU machine, so he told me about a doctor at California named Dr. Pugach. And I went out and met with him and had a great meeting, super knowledgeable. Has done probably at the time the second most number of HIFU treatments in the country. I put my trust in him and decided to go through that. That was in 2020. So that was COVID. But he did sign me up for a clinical trial at UCLA Med for the PSMA PET scan. And this was in March of 2020. I live in Scottsdale, so I drove out by myself six hours, three hours in a clinical trial and six hours of drive home on the same day. But I thought it was really worth it. And I got the results at the end of the trial and they followed me for about six or eight months. It ended up getting approved, so that was great. The HIFU went well. My PSA went down to 1.5 from 14.6, so I had really good results from it. And then I just went on a protocol of every three months doing blood work and watching my PSA.

So the HIFU, you have two options. You can, from what I understand ... I'm not a doctor. But you can do a partial gland HIFU or you can do a total gland HIFU. And so when the doctor said, "Hey, if we can go through the PSMA PET scan, I can identify exactly where the cancer is. I can point the ultrasound to the cancer and we would have a good chance of eliminating it." And so the reason he wanted to put me in the trial was because he thought it would be best to do that in order to get the best outcome with HIFU. I think it was beneficial, but over the next year and a half, my PSA kept going up. So it went from 1.5 to 1.8. Went all the way up to 3.5. And the urologist that I had here in Arizona just kept saying, "Yeah, you're probably okay. You're probably okay." And what I decided to do is go get a second opinion.

And so I moved all my records over to Mayo Clinic. I'm fortunate and blessed enough to have Mayo Clinic in our backyard. And I was fortunate they accepted me because they don't accept everybody. They're very busy. So I was able to get in. I went in, met with a urologist, told him what was going on. And so they decided that what they wanted to do was do an MRI, a PSMA PET scan and a biopsy. And so here I am again full circle back to now it's available. Now it's a covered service where before I had to pay out of pocket for it because it was a clinical trial.

Interestingly enough, they did the MRI first. The MRI didn't show any cancer. Timeline wise, we're now into 2023. So first got diagnosed in 2019, treatment in 2020 with HIFU. 2023, my PSA is going up, I get over to Mayo. MRI doesn't show any cancer. PSMA PET scan did. And once they did the biopsy, they figured out I was a Gleason eight, and. So the MRI missed it and that's I think pretty typical. So I feel like having gone through the clinical trial and everything with HIFU and now having the opportunity to do it again here with the PSMA pet, I think the PSMA PET is the gold standard now for prostate cancer. It's just my opinion, but I think it does the best job to identify exactly where the cancer is.

It was on the back side of the prostate. It also indicated in my seminal vesicles that there were some activity there. That was the reading that came back. And so they did a biopsy on obviously my prostate, and they also did it on the seminal vesicles. Seminal vesicles came back negative, thankfully. And so they now identified where the prostate cancer was. The other thing I really like about Mayo ... And I wish more doctors would be this way, is they're very independent. They're salaried. They're not incentivized by performing procedures on you. They actually made sure I met with a surgeon and I met with a radiation oncologist so that I have some options there. They also talked about other options outside of Mayo, things that they offer. So I really appreciated that. I spent a couple of months meeting with different doctors. Being a Gleason aide, wanted to get after it, but I also wanted to make sure I made the right decision.

Ultimately, at the end of the day, I decided to do radiation. So I did 28 rounds of radiation and also did Eligard for a year. So that's that testosterone suppressant. And so I actually just got off the Eligard at the end of December, so very happy to be off of that. That was not enjoyable, but it worked. My PSA is at zero, so it's undetectable at this point.

My care team at Mayo was really good. During the radiation sometimes I would be there for 15 minutes or sometimes I'd be there for two hours. They really wanted to make sure that my bladder was full and my bowel was empty, and it really had to be perfect before they put me on the machine. And sometimes I'd get frustrated with it and say, "Come on. I got stuff to do." But at the end of the day, I had some burning and some minor issues, but I really didn't have a lot of side effects from the radiation. I continued to work every day. So I would do it first thing in the morning. I'd be one of the first patients in there at 7:30. I would get the radiation treatment. I'd be in the office usually by nine or so, and then work full days. So by the end of the week I was very tired and pretty worn down. But yeah, I tried to stay active and continued to go to the gym during the radiation too. That was my mental health break.

I did the Eligard and the nurse that gave me the shot said, "You're going to be one of three people. You're either going to have hardly any side effects, some side effects, or a lot of side effects." And unfortunately, I was a lot of side effects guy. He said probably because I'm younger, my testosterone was higher so I had a lot of hot flashes. I had a little bit of bone pain. Just run down tired. No sex drive. That was really low too. So that was hard. The hot flashes were so bad I think once I had seven in one night, I just kept waking up and going back to sleep and waking up. And so I called my doctor and they put me on another medication called Effexor. Are an Effexor's an antidepressant, but it helps a lot with hot flashes. So I went on Effexor and I'm just titrating off of that now. But that was super helpful. That helped. I still have hot flashes, but they're a lot less with Effexor.

So the protocol moving forward is that I'll do blood work every three months for a little while and keep an eye on it. And my PSA, as long as it stays low, then I'll be okay though moving out to every six months and then every year. And so I'll start to get a little time in between tests. I have a beautiful wife and three kids. I've got a 23-year-old, a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old, two girls and a boy. It hit them pretty hard when I first told them about it. They just heard cancer and that was five years ago so take all their ages down five years. You have a seven and 12-year-old hearing about their dad having cancer. It was a tough journey, but I really kept it to myself for a month or two until I figured out what I was going to do and then once I figured out I was going to do HIFU, I let them know. And then they all traveled out to California with me when I did the surgery. But when it came back, that was alarming for them too. And also to know that it was a little more serious this time around. Not that at Gleason six isn't serious, but it's not nearly as aggressive as an eight.

But I just kept them informed along the way. I told them what was happening and what I was doing, and it was great. They were there when I rang the bell on my 28th round of radiation so that was really cool. My wife's been super supportive. She was with me for most of my treatments. She and I both went to the Mayo Clinic every morning at 7:30. She would sit in the waiting room and do puzzles while I went in and waited until everything was just right on the table. Yeah. It's definitely changed my perspective on things. I've been a really focused on work and trying to be successful and be a good provider for my family, and I think I really ... A pretty hard hit over the head that that's not the most important thing. I want to spend some more time with my kids. I want to go on more vacations, more trips, just being there and being more present. So that's a lot of what's happened over the last five years for me.

I struggled so much with Eligard I wondered if I really should have gone on it. But as my wife said, one year of being uncomfortable and a little bit of suffering could pay off and buy us some extra years on the back end. I would say the biggest thing for me, or any advice ... And I've met with lots of guys. I've been fairly public about my diagnosis, and so I get people that call me and want to meet and Hey, what'd you do? And how'd you do it? I never try to tell people what to do. I think what men should do is advocate for themselves.

My dad ended up doing 42 rounds of low dose radiation. I didn't think that was the right thing for him, but he's an older guy. He is more old school, Hey, I'm going to do what my doctor tells me to do. I'm not sure that's really the way the healthcare delivery system works anymore. I think as a patient, you need to look around. You need to check out your options. You need to meet with different doctors. I would say just again, advocate for yourself. Find out what's the best treatment for you and for your family and your situation. Everybody's journey's different. They have different situations. But there are some new things coming out on the horizon for prostate cancer. I've been trying to stay up on it just in case it comes back again. I love what the foundation's doing. I love all the research that's going into prostate cancer. So I really think that if you take a step back, once you get your diagnosis and really look around and see what your options are, you might find there's an option out there that your doctor's not telling you to do right away. Or maybe as you broaden your vision a little bit, you may find one that's a better fit for you.

The first time I got diagnosed, I didn't know really what it meant and so I found myself sometimes crying in my car thinking about not being able to see my kids grow up. But I think keeping things in perspective, making sure that you stay on your health. I've even had some of my friends say, "Well, if I eat right and exercise, I should be fine." That was me. I was the eat right and exercise guy. I've been exercising since I was in high school. So it's not really the case, but I'd say stay your health. I'd say because I went public with it with some of my friends, it caused them to go in and get their PSA checked and now they're on their health journey to make sure they stay on top of their health.

Yeah. I'd say the mental side of it can get tough at times, especially as you're going through treatments. I have a really supporting family and I think that that was super helpful for me. But find outlets for you, exercise, walk, go on trips, whatever it is. Don't let your life slow down because of it, and make sure you fight as hard as you can in that journey. I applaud all the guys out there fighting the good fight. It is a journey for sure. I'll be watching over my back or over my shoulder for a while to come, but there's hope. There's a lot of great treatments out there. Get with a good doctor and make sure you're comfortable with any of the consequences or outcomes or treatments there. I wish everybody good luck and everybody that's newly diagnosed or in the middle of the fight, I wish them all lots of luck.