This is from a newly diagnosed man named Jeff L., who I recently met and have been corresponding with. Super guy and interesting, too. Jeff wrote that he is afraid that from now on his life will be defined by one thing — the prostate cancer. That is to say that he will be a patient and not a person. Or worse.  He writes:

I guess that after three weeks of focusing on this stuff I’m a little nervous that this will start to define me in my own eyes and in the eyes of others. I want to yell at the lab techs, receptionists, doctor:

“Yo! I’m more than this weeks bag o’ symptoms!”