Anxiety over a recurrence in the future

Dealing with the side effects I think was just a function of understanding that there were things I could control, diet, exercise, managing stress which would mitigate but not eliminate the side effects.

There were the humorous yet effective ways, when my daughter was hone fur Christmas while I was on ADT she came home and asked why I had it set to air conditioning! I was driving with a friend to a game one November, it was cold outside, near zero, he reached to turn the heat on and I said touch that and I'll have to kill you...

Something that helped was each time I went on treatment I was a rapid responder, PSA would drop to undetectable in the first three months, a sign of a durable remission.

I was also confident in my decisions, knowing that I had made the best possible treatment choice with the assistance of my medical team. Those choices were for defined periods, not life sentences.

After surgery, I changed my outlook on treatment from trying to understand if it would work for the next 10-15 years to 3-5. Why, I knew that medical research would bring new treatment agents and imaging during that time, enabling me to do something different.

I kept myself informed, I don't like to use the term "research." It implies a scientific method. Instead I called it literature searches and reviews. Whatever, I could go toe to toe with my medical team on discussions about treatment specific to my clinical data.

I did 22 years in the Army, you learn a lot about accomplishing the assigned mission, how to do mission analysis, determine specified tasks, implied tasks, course of actions, decision making criteria...having branches and sequels to your original
plan...no plan survives contact with the enemy...

Those are some of the ways.

I've been fortunate, no financial toxicity, my insurance has never been an issue.

A work environment that gave me the flexibility i needed...when i needed it.

I've had some great members on my medical team, fired a few too.

To sum it up, attitude...

Kevin

“No plan survives contact with the enemy”….very good life lesson right there, Kevin.
I think Mike Tyson also has this view. When he was in his younger, ferocious days, a reporter asked him about an upcoming contender’s plan to beat him.
Tyson replied, “Yeah, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face”😂

Off topic, but I sometimes wonder if they'd been the same age and met in their prime, whether Muhammad Ali's elaborate strategising would have be enough to overcome Mike Tyson's raw force, the way it was with George Foreman.