Hosting a Celebration of Survivors

Seattle businessman Steve Fleischmann was just 47 and seemingly in excellent health when he went to his doctor for a routine checkup. That visit, and the doctor's willingness to follow up on a feeling that "something was odd," Fleischmann says, may have saved his life.

The doctor, Dr. Gary Schuster, sent Fleischmann to a urologist, who diagnosed prostate cancer. Based on his own research and conversations with friends, Fleischmann then decided to see Dr. Paul Lange, chairman of the Department of Urology at the University of Washington Medical Center and member of the SCCA Prostate Cancer Center, for a second opinion.

Fleischmann and his wife, Patty Haven Fleischmann, visited Dr. Lange together and were impressed not only by his credentials ("He's one of the top three in the world," says Fleischmann), but by the fact that Dr. Lange is a prostate cancer survivor himself. "He's had prostate cancer, so he really understands what a man goes through," Fleischmann says. 

Dr. Lange agrees that his experience with cancer has changed him as a doctor: "It's changed the way I listen to patients. I'm a lot more sympathetic than I was before--I don't think there's any question about that."

Fleischmann opted for a radical prostatectomy, in which the entire prostate gland is removed, performed by Dr. Lange at the University of Washington Medical Center in the summer of 2003.

Surgery is not the only treatment option for prostate cancer, but Fleischmann felt it was right for him. He and his wife have two young children, a 6-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son, and, he says, "I was realizing that I have a young family, and a business I run with a lot of employees I have to take care of."

But in addition, he says, "What was most important for me was to feel psychologically and emotionally that my cancer was gone."

Dr. Lange used a relatively new technique called nerve-sparing surgery, which saves the nerves that control a man's ability to have an erection.

The surgery was a success--"I'm hoping and expecting that he's cured," says Dr. Lange--and Fleischmann has avoided the two biggest side effects of prostate surgery: impotence and incontinence, which he admits he worried about before surgery. "I didn't want to be a 47-year-old man in a diaper," he says.

A Man with a mission

Now 48, Fleischmann is an upbeat, energetic man. He employs a dozen people at Fleischmann Office Interiors, a downtown Seattle firm that he calls "the best office furniture dealership in Seattle." He was back at work part-time within two weeks of his surgery, but he is forever changed by the experience.

Fleischmann now has an ambitious personal agenda:
· To organize a prostate cancer fund-raiser
· To counsel any man with prostate cancer who asks for his support
· And to face the world openly as he speaks about a disease most men find almost impossible to talk about.

Fleischmann's openness extends to discussing issues such as the impact his illness had on his family, advice on dealing with prostate cancer and the lessons other men can learn from his experience.

And men have a lot to learn, according to Dr. Lange, who says bluntly, "Men don't know what the prostate does. They don't know where it is. And they don't like to talk about it.

"They are terribly threatened by the potency part, their reproductive powers, which they do lose. Men do not like to be vulnerable."

Fleischmann agrees: "Some men never tell anyone [that they have prostate cancer]. It's scary to find out you have cancer. You don't want to tell anybody." But his wife is a marriage and family therapist, and she pushed him to be open with family and friends about his illness.

"I pushed him, because I think holding it in is bad," says Patty Fleischmann. "But he really made it easy for people to be there for him. … That love and support was really helpful for him in recovery, and right before [surgery] when he was really anxious."

Fleischmann checked into the hospital accompanied by friends. And when he came out of surgery at midnight, still groggy from the anesthetic, 16 close friends were still there, waiting to see him.

About a month after Fleischmann's surgery, his wife held a surprise party at the restaurant Wild Ginger and invited about 80 people who had supported him through his illness, including Dr. Lange; his internist, Dr. Schuster; and a mentor, retired pathologist Dr. Gil Roth, whose son is a close friend.

Fundraiser

Fleischmann, whose wife calls him "a natural fundraiser," told Dr. Lange at their first meeting that he would chair a breakfast to raise money for prostate cancer research. Such events are commonplace for breast cancer, but Fleischmann believes his breakfast is the first in the country for prostate cancer.

Once Fleischmann had completed treatment, Dr. Lange put him in touch with Julia Ruvelson, director of development for UW Medicine. Together, they planned the event, called "Survivors Celebration," which took place in early December. Some 600 men attended, and almost $1 million was raised.

"The purpose of the breakfast is to get this disease out of the closet," he says. "We're asking men who have had prostate cancer to be table captains and to fill a table."

The event was such a success, Fleischmann is already talking about the next one.

Impact on the family

Both Fleischmanns are remarkably open about the impact prostate cancer has on couples. Patty Fleischmann developed Bell's palsy, a form of facial paralysis, during her husband's illness. "I took it a lot worse than he did," she says.

She remembers the anxiety she felt on the day of her husband's surgery, and her fear that their sex life would never be the same. "That's not an easy topic to talk about with the person who has the cancer," she says. And she worried about her two young children, who were only 2 and 5 at the time. "He had a bad cancer, it wasn't as clear-cut as everyone was saying, and it seemed to never end," she says now with a laugh at her own fears.

Steve's program

Fleischmann developed his own three-part program to help him prepare for cancer surgery, recover afterward, and do everything possible to keep the cancer from coming back. A positive man by nature, he worked to keep "a positive healthy attitude," which he feels is essential to a good outcome when facing cancer.

Fleischmann wanted to be in "the best possible physical shape" at the time of his surgery, so for the six to eight weeks between his diagnosis and surgery he put himself on a better eating program and got as much exercise as possible. He went to Sun Valley almost every weekend and hiked in the hills.

To aid his recovery after surgery, Dr. Lange recommended that Fleischmann start walking and get off the pain medication as soon as he could. Fleischmann started walking the next day, even though, he admits, it was painful.

He was told to expect a six-week recovery period, but was quickly back at work part-time. This speedy recovery is due in part, of course, to his relatively young age (the average age at diagnosis with prostate cancer is 70) but also to his physical and mental preparation.

In addition to walking and hiking to stay in shape, Fleischmann did kegel exercises, the exercises originally developed to help women control incontinence after childbirth, for a month before his surgery, "I did hundreds a day," he recalls. Once his catheter came out two and a half weeks after surgery, he was back doing kegels, and has had no problem with incontinence. Dr. Lange says the research on kegel exercises and incontinence in men after prostate surgery is inconclusive. "But we like to start men thinking about doing the exercises," he says.

As part of his recovery and cancer-prevention program, Fleischmann also consulted a naturopath who specializes in caring for cancer patients and went on a vitamin program to build his immune system.

He has a PSA test every month, and so far these tests have been normal.

Through it all, Fleischmann counsels other men with prostate cancer. He says he gets about one phone call a week from a man who is newly diagnosed. "I do my best to have them talk to Dr. Lange," he says, "and so far we're batting 1,000."

The message for younger men

Only about 10 percent of men with prostate cancer are diagnosed before age 50, as Fleischmann was. Dr. Lange says the youngest man he has treated was 35. But Fleischmann's father had prostate cancer in his 70s, which greatly increased his risk of developing the disease.

A man whose father or brother had prostate cancer faces a risk six times higher than that of a man with no family history, says Dr. Lange. He recommends that African-American men (who are at higher risk than men of other races) and men with a family history of the disease start getting an annual PSA test and physical exam at age 40. All other men should begin checkups at age 50. Screening is especially important because the disease is usually diagnosed before symptoms appear, when it is most curable and there are more treatment options.

May 2004

 

To read more:

Prostate Cancer Treatment Profile of Dr. Lange