I still wonder if it's a blessing or a burden that my PCa paralysed me by compressing my spinal chord at T3 (before it was detected). It's a burden because, as I've mentioned in other posts, I was in a hospital bed for months; it's a blessing because over the two years since diagnosis, I've seen myself getting stronger instead of weaker (from admittedly a very low starting point, and with many temporary setbacks), and that's left me feeling optimistic instead of defeated.

Every first — the first time I was able to get upright (for a few seconds) with the help of a Sara Stedy then with support from my arms on parallel bars, the first time I could sit up for an hour in the wheelchair without getting dizzy, the first time I could transfer to the wheelchair by myself, getting home from hospital, the first time I cooked a meal from the wheelchair, the first time I could walk 100m outside with the rollator, then with a cane, then unassisted — has felt like a victory.

It was easier for me to feel that way because of my situation, but I wish everyone with prostate cancer could see the victories they're winning every day, even when things look gloomy.