u/EightFox88

Hi, I posted last week about getting an elevated PSA level in some blood work. Now I am going through the VA system and I spent the last few days getting to the proper department. So my screening appointment I got the first available. It's not till Jul 29th. Is that normal to have to wait that long? It feels like that's kinda ridiculous to have to sit on it that long.

I've been shafted by the military med system before. I was shitting blood and they made me wait like 2months because the Dr that does endoscopies was getting ready to leave so I had to wait until a new Dr came on post. When I told him he was appalled. He's like, "Deficating blood is serious, and if it was something crucial, you could have died." So I'm a little skeptical. But two months might be typical... I don't know?

Oh great, there is a tag for them 😫

So I had some blood work done the other day because I was looking into testosterone therapy. The lab sent me a message that my PSA levels are high and they can't continue until I get screened for prostate cancer. It's concerning I suppose. I'm 49 and my mother died of colon cancer. I've never been screened.

I know this doesn't mean I have it but what are the odds like.? Like is a pretty good indicator that it's likely or is it hit or miss ? I'm just asking because I'm down in Texas but I'm from Canada and I don't really have anyone to talk to down here about it.

I will call the VA on Monday and get something setup I suppose.

He had just gotten back to work after medical recovery from several surgeries because of a bone disease he had. He was on cloud nine. Bro was a pro snowboarder at one time in his life, a super talented artist, and he had just landed a job as a residential painter. He wanted to celebrate, and we were making poor life decisions back then. He asked me if I could find him a certain narcotic. I was breaking away from that life at the time, so I had the connect but expressed my discomfort. Then he told me Food Thief, our other dirtbag roommate, had met a guy on the bus who was going to hook him up if I couldn’t. I was thinking that wasn’t responsible drug use, so I caved and had a guy I knew meet up with him. He was twenty dollars short, so I spotted him. He came home and went to work on it.

Sometime after midnight I knocked on his door. He opened it wearing just a pair of shorts and looking messed up. I asked him for the twenty dollars I had lent him. He was holding his shorts up with one hand but lost his grip. His shorts dropped, and all I saw was his wang. I’m like, “Bro, it’s cool. I’ll get it from you another time.” I turned around and went to my room, wondering if he was one of those people who gets weird on drugs, so I was kinda upset.

Hours later I heard him yell out over my music and I cringed, thinking he must have just finished himself. For the next few days I wasn’t avoiding him, but I wasn’t going out of my way to talk to him because of our awkward situation. That was a Monday. On Thursday I got a call from our housing person asking when I had last spoken to him. I thought I had heard him the night before talking to Food Thief, so I let them know I heard him but hadn’t talked to him since Monday. They thanked me and let me go. About ten minutes later I got another call from one of the housing people I knew. He told me they had found my homie dead in his bed. They thought it was some kind of stomach issue.

I immediately thought, “Did he off himself because he felt ashamed of what happened that night?” My head was spinning. But I had heard him last night. When I got home and talked to Food Thief, he confirmed that he had his boy over the night before. My heart sank. When he yelled out and I thought he had just blown his load, he was actually dying.

This sent me down a bad road. When the autopsy came back, it was determined his heart had exploded. They told us no drugs were found in his system, but really they may have just said that to make us feel better, since it wasn’t the cause of something we were all living together trying to escape. This was a recovery house, and before I get slaughtered in the comments, if you think sober living houses are a good, clean, safe, sober environment, in my experience they are worse. I was in a program for over two years and moved between three houses. The reason I kept moving was because of roommates still using. It was pure drama of alliances and broken promises. This was well over a decade ago, and it tore me up for a long time. It still fills me with regret and sorrow.

I’m so sorry, brother. I think about you all the time and I miss you. Rest in peace, JK.