Prostate Cancer and BBQ

My cousin, who is 3 years younger than me, recently had a prostate biopsy.  Almost exactly my age and time of year 4 years ago that I had the same.  He has gotten the results and he too has prostate cancer.  We talked a bit, he told me everything his doctor told him, he had some questions for me which I answered as best I could.  I sent him links to articles I have written here and one other hoping to give him more information to help him gain a perspective from someone that has been through this and chose surgery.  The links also included a link to someone that opted to do nothing which I shared here also.  His doctor told him the cancer was totally contained and hadn't spread.  What?  From a biopsy?  I didn't even know that was possible.  They couldn't tell that from mine even during the surgery.  They had to do the usual after surgery pathology to determine if it had spread, they couldn't tell by just looking and wouldn't even guess.  Maybe they have some sort of new biopsy tools available to them they didn't have 4 years ago.  They also did only half as many samples as mine, he had 6, I had twelve.  

Evidently he finally met with the doctor about the results and he decided to opt for surgery.  I am glad that he went with this choice.  He has seen 3 of his family members (includes me) get this disease.  His step father passed away from it (he was in his 80's), his step brother also had it.  So he has a lot of experience to draw from.  His step father opted for radiation.  That did not go well at all.  His step brother had the surgery, but it wasn't robotic like mine.  He and I talked quite a bit during my ordeal and he answered a lot of questions for me.  So I guess you could say we have our own family support group.  His cancer, from this initial biopsy, is not as aggressive as mine, for that I am very thankful.  His chance of surviving are very high, well into the 90% range.  He seems to have the same attitude I had and isn't worried and is very positive about what lies ahead.  I will be there for him every step.  If you want to know why I chose surgery over radiation, let me know and I will get with you about this.  What the doctor told me about the radiation and results left me with no doubt to go for surgery.

Friday we are having some folks over to eat some of my BBQ Brisket.  We are having the new preacher we hired over, along with some other couples, to get to know him better welcome him and his family and let him see what real Texas BBQ is about.  He is from Oregon and then Utah, so I have no idea what the BBQ situation is there.  They never come up in the conversation about best BBQ like Texas, Kansas (they don't even have trees to get wood so how...) Memphis and North Carolina do.  Seriously, how does a place that has no trees get smoke from wood to make BBQ?  Just putting sauce on meat and throwing it in the oven is NOT BBQ!  (OK yeah, there is charcoal from the store but wood is the key.)  If that is how you do it, we don't even consider you a worthy BBQ aficionado.  Yes, yes I am a BBQ snob.  If your BBQ needs sauce and doesn't have a smoke flavor, it ain't done right.  Fact.  

Happy Trails