Changing to UAF Legacy Health saved my life – QSaltLake Magazine

TLDR: I’ve been diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer, which has not spread outside the prostate, and I credit UAF Legacy Health and Dr. Matt Bryan for saving my life.

I never expected that changing insurance would change my life. But here I am, telling you that it did.

At the beginning of the year, I had to switch to Aetna Insurance through the ACA. That meant finding a new primary care doctor. I knew that UAF Legacy Health offered LGBTQ+-centered care, and I knew I wanted to support them. It felt good to make a decision based on my values and in one more way, support my community. I didn’t realize at the time that it would turn out to be a decision that may have saved my life.

That’s how I met Dr. Matt Bryan. When he walked into the exam room for the first time, we recognized each other and laughed.  A couple of years back, we’d both “competed” in a fundraiser for the Utah Chapter of the American Cancer Society called “Cancer’s a Drag.” Seven guys in dresses, wigs, and heels lip-syncing for a good cause. I remember thinking it was all in fun. Now, the irony is not lost on me.

During that first visit, Dr. Bryan took time to get to know me, my medical history, and my family’s health background. He ordered a full panel of standard labs, nothing out of the ordinary. If you’re a gay man on PrEP, regular lab work is pretty routine. That visit felt like a fresh start.

Everything in my lab results came back within normal ranges — except one. A test I’d never heard of before: PSA.

PSA stands for Prostate-Specific Antigen. It’s a protein produced by cells of the prostate gland, and elevated levels in the blood can be a sign of prostate cancer. A normal PSA level is considered to be between 0 and 4. My level was 20.

Dr. Bryan told me not to panic. PSA levels can be elevated for a number of reasons, and I happened to be recovering from a mild case of diverticulitis at the time. So I waited two months and we ran the test again.

This time, my PSA was 20.4.

Dr. Bryan referred me to a urologist for a digital rectal exam and an MRI. The first part sounded like a good time, but the MRI was the real game-changer.

The results were… sobering.

“Enlarged prostate gland with foci of abnormal signal in the transition zone as well as the peripheral zone. Composite PIRADS Category 5, highly suspicious. There is a high likelihood of clinically significant prostate cancer.”

Just like that, my world shifted.

The next step was a prostate biopsy. The earliest appointment I could get was exactly two months after the MRI. I worried every day about the delay. I knew that if this was prostate cancer, time mattered. My grandfather died of bone cancer that started in the prostate. The fear was very real.

I got another urology appointment at Huntsman Cancer Institute, hoping for a sooner biopsy. They could get me in — in three months.

Even with a PIRADS 5 MRI, doctors won’t confirm cancer until a biopsy proves it. So I waited. My first PSA test was in early January. My biopsy was scheduled for early July. Six months.

While I was already sure I had prostate cancer, the biopsy would tell me how aggressive the cancer was. Many prostate cancers are slow-moving and can merely be monitored. But some require immediate and aggressive treatment.

The results came back with a Gleason score of 9.

Nine.

The Gleason scoring system for malignant cancer ranges from 6 to 10. A 9 means the cancer is very aggressive and likely to grow and spread quickly. Now, things were serious.

The biggest lingering question — my fear for months — was whether it had spread beyond the prostate. That would change everything. The next step was a PSMA PET scan, which would identify whether cancer had metastasized. I was told it could take up to three weeks to get one: one week for insurance approval, and two more to get it scheduled.

But in a small miracle of coordination, my insurance approved the scan the very next morning. I made several phone calls to get the referral in motion, and the Cancer Center scheduled my scan within five business days.

The scan came back clean. No sign of spread.

For the first time in this entire process, I exhaled.

While I now face treatment options that are far from pleasant — surgery, radiation, hormone therapy, or some combination of the three — I can at least face them with the knowledge that we likely caught this early enough to avoid systemic treatments.

And I owe that to UAF Legacy Health.

If I hadn’t been forced to change insurance, I wouldn’t likely have changed doctors. If I hadn’t picked UAF Legacy Health, I wouldn’t have met Dr. Bryan. And if Dr. Bryan hadn’t taken a full, thoughtful approach to understanding my health and family history, that PSA test might never have been ordered. I had zero symptoms. No pain, no urinary issues, no waking to pee in the middle of the night, nothing to tip me off.

In hindsight, it’s terrifying to think how far this cancer could have progressed without that one blood test. It’s not lost on me that a health care system focused on LGBTQ+ patients was the one that saw me, took me seriously, and took the steps that ultimately may have saved my life.

So yes, changing insurance changed my life. But choosing UAF Legacy Health saved it.

Source – Indonesia News