50 Years Old!
In 2014 I turned 50! Hurray! Time to celebrate and of course, go see the doctor for my annual physical. I always believed that since I was paying for insurance, I should go every year to get my physical. I knew this was the big physical. The extra tests of colonoscopy and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) were on the menu. At the time, my doctor asked me “Do you want the PSA?” I said why not. She stated that there has been some controversy about it. I told her to give me everything I am supposed to have as I’d rather be safe then sorry. (Little did I know that I made a good decision that day.)
It is simple, go to the lab in the same building and give some blood. Well for me, it was 4 vials of blood since she was checking all of my numbers such as my cholesterol, glucose etc.
A couple of days later all my tests came back. Everything was in the normal range EXCEPT the PSA. For my age, I should have been under 3.5. My PSA was 4.1. I knew another friend who turned 50 and his PSA was 1.1… So I guess mine was high. That was on 8-29-2014.
What is a PSA Test? Here is an explanation from cancer.gov:
Prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, is a protein produced by cells of the prostate gland. The PSA test measures the level of PSA in a man’s blood. For this test, a blood sample is sent to a laboratory for analysis. The results are usually reported as nanograms of PSA per milliliter (ng/mL) of blood.