Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 16, 1994 TAG: 9404180152
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Awkwardly, he pointed to his trousers, perhaps hoping the gesture would be enough. Then slowly, carefully, he began to speak.
"I guess my main question," he said, "is how long I will have to go through the process of having to be careful."
Seated next to him in the hotel ballroom, Croy's wife, Pency, tried to help out.
"Bladder control," she explained.
Six months ago, doctors removed Croy's prostate, leaving him with some less-than-pleasant side effects and a lot of questions.
But none more pressing than this: When would he regain control of his bladder?
It's a question a lot of men wrestle with after prostate surgery, but few want to ask.
That's starting to change.
Croy, 68, sat among a roomful of his peers Thursday night, talking about incontinence and a couple of other tough subjects: impotence and castration.
Sure-fire conversation killers under normal circumstances, these topics spurred open and earnest discussion among the 50 men and women who came to the Marriott to help launch a Roanoke Valley chapter of Us, Too, a national support group for prostate cancer survivors and their families.
Sponsored by Roanoke Memorial Hospital's Cancer Center of Southwest Virginia, the group will provide information and emotional support to those affected by the disease.
Founded in Chicago four years ago, "Us, Too" has been growing in popularity as men all over the country look for answers to questions about what causes this cancer, how best to treat it and how to handle a range of uncomfortable side effects.
Prostate cancer strikes one in every 10 men in America.
In the Roanoke Valley, that translates to an estimated 4,400 men over the age of 40, the age recommended to begin annual prostate cancer testing. Nationwide, the American Cancer Society predicts there will be 200,000 new cases of prostate cancer this year. Approximately 38,000 men are expected to die from the disease in 1994 - about 3,000 more than last year.
But the survival rates have been climbing. Over the past 30 years, the survival rate for all stages of the disease - that is, the number of men who lived for five years after treatment - rose from 50 percent to 78 percent. If treated in the early stages, survival rates rise to 92 percent.
Survival rates, treatment options and side effects are some of the topics Us, Too plans to cover. Support group members and their families will choose which issues they want to focus on in the coming months, and Carilion will provide the speakers, meeting rooms and refreshments, said Margaret Harvey, director of cancer program development.
She said Carilion was committed to the group as long as people wanted to meet.
That's welcome news to Bud Suess, who has been traveling from Smith Mountain Lake to Waynesboro and Charlottesville for the past year and a half to attend Us, Too meetings. Suess had his prostate removed three years ago, but his questions and the need to talk about what he was going through lingered long after the surgery.
Suess suspected there were others in the Roanoke area with the same problems. Then he met Jack Roch, a member of his church and a fellow prostate cancer survivor. Roch and he began to talk, and soon others began to seek them out.
"I'll be the first to admit I wasn't real thrilled at first when people would buttonhole me and say, 'I hear you had your prostate removed,'" Roch said. "To me, it was absolutely amazing how quickly word got around."
But once it did, the network of men giving each other support and sharing information began to grow. Roch's wife told her friends about her husband's disease, and they had their husbands call him. Others called friends from out of state who had the disease, or friends who were urologists, or family members who knew somebody who might have information to share.
The idea really took off last year when Roanoke Memorial sponsored an international speaker on prostate cancer. More than 100 people showed up on a cold, rainy Wednesday, among them Roch and Suess. They asked Cancer Center Medical Director Dr. Stephen Rosenoff that night if he would start a chapter of Us, Too.
Rosenoff returned Thursday as the group's first speaker. He addressed the controversies surrounding prostate cancer treatment - whether treatment is always necessary, how soon and how long men should be tested for the disease and whether the benefits always outweigh the side effects of radiation or surgery.
"Not every man who has prostate cancer needs treatment," he said. The difficulty is in guessing who does and who doesn't.
That's not easy, he said.
"There are no clear answers."
Nor are there definitive answers when it comes to which treatment is best, when to administer it and how it will affect each person, Rosenoff said.
But there is hope. When the group adjourned from the conference theater to the ballroom for refreshments, Croy sat down to speak with Roch about his bladder problems. When Roch told him that he regained control of his bladder after surgery, Croy felt a weight lift from his shoulders.
"I have something to look forward to," he said. "At least my spirits are high."
Us, Too will hold its second meeting May 19 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Roanoke Memorial Rehabilitation Center/Cancer Center Conference Room. For more information, call Carilion Physician Referral at 981-7641 or (800)422-8482,
by CNB