When Derrick’s doctor caught rising PSA levels at his semi-annual physical in 2019, he felt incredibly lucky to catch it so early. Then, just one month before COVID shut down the country, he got his life-changing diagnosis: prostate cancer. He wasn’t able to get a prostatectomy until a full four months later.
Unfortunately, like many other prostate cancer survivors, Derrick continuously dealt with incontinence after his prostatectomy: “I was thinking about it all day, every day; at work, at the gym, on the bike. It affected everything.” A police officer for over 30 years, Derrick is incredibly active—he even bikes 100 miles a week; it became debilitating, and Derrick searched desperately for help.
After undergoing surgery for a male urinary sling, tests showed that his PSA levels were still rising. Then, after 32 rounds of radiation, his incontinence began to decline again. Derrick began his search for answers once again and found Dr. Jeff Brady online. Excited to discover Dr. Brady was a triathlete, Derrick felt like he would understand his struggles with exercise and activity. His fifth surgery in just four years, Derrick underwent surgery for an artificial urinary sphincter (AUS) with Dr. Brady at AdventHealth. Finally able to get back to the life he knew before his diagnosis, Derrick is incredibly grateful: “Incontinence was so bad and so unpredictable, [Dr. Brady and AdventHealth] really gave me my life back.”
Derrick is active in prostate cancer survivorship groups and is passionate about accessibility to treatments: "It's not the end of the world. Go get tested. Treatments are advancing; you just have to be an advocate for yourself. That's the most important thing – do your research and your homework about prostate cancer and what comes with it. Not every hospital or doctor does every treatment. Figure out what works best for you."
