Women whose husbands receive a diagnosis of prostate cancer are often the ones who swing into action, research treatment options, advise their husbands, and offer emotional support before, during and after treatment.
And unlike wives of husbands who may be fighting heart disease or diabetes, couples confronting prostate cancer face a delicate dilemma since the man’s ability to be sexually intimate with his partner may be compromised. Some treatments may also render the man incontinent, forcing him to wear an adult diaper for an extended period or even for the rest of his life.
Three women, Sharie, Gail and Nancy live in different cities and have diverse careers, but they each became instant caregivers and experts in prostate cancer therapies when their husbands received the troubling diagnosis. And each couple chose a different procedure.
Sharie, who works at a Colorado bank, dug up so much information about the disease she ended up creating a spreadsheet to keep track of all the pros and cons for the treatments available to her husband of 27 years who was diagnosed with localized prostate cancer at the age of 56 in 2016.
Besides learning about levels of PSA (prostate-specific antigen) as well as Gleason scores which are both used to assess the severity or risks of prostate cancer, Sharie and her husband Les were concerned about the side effects of several treatments.