'Don't procrastinate': Sarpy County Board member advocates for early prostate cancer screenings - Omaha World-Herald

Men can be stubborn about their health, says Sarpy County Board member Gary Mixan.

But he would like to see that change, especially when it comes to preventive care. He routinely gets physicals and talks to his doctor about concerns, which led to an early diagnosis of prostate cancer this year, even though he had no physical warnings.

“There are not signs,” he said. “I had no idea I had anything starting to go wrong.”

Early warning signs for prostate cancer aren’t common, according to the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Tumors in the walnut-sized organ don’t press against anything to cause pain. That’s why early screening is so important.

“If you catch this stuff early, you have a very good chance of just taking care of it and moving on and being cancer-free,” Mixan said.

He wants more men to follow his lead. It may be convenient to ignore one’s health if nothing feels off, Mixan said, but consistent medical care and communication with doctors is important for long-term health.

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Mixan, 61, began receiving tests for the disease about two years ago, but doctors first became concerned in the spring. His urologist offered two options for further exploration: a biopsy, an invasive procedure that involves taking tissue samples; or an MRI scan, which would be more expensive but would give his medical team better insight.

Mixan chose the MRI at his doctor’s encouragement. “He said, ‘I will have so much more information instead of just going in and doing the biopsy blind,’ ” Mixan said.

After his MRI in early summer, doctors performed a biopsy, using the results of the scan to determine the tissue that should be collected.

Surgeons at Methodist Hospital removed his prostate on a Monday morning in late September. He was out of the hospital by Tuesday afternoon. His recovery period, which included physical therapy, lasted about six weeks. During that time, he couldn’t lift more than a gallon of milk.

Getting his prostate removed and going through the healing process wasn’t easy, Mixan said, but it was preferable to the alternative.

“I would just tell people: Don’t procrastinate,” Mixan said. “Go in because what they do, whatever you have to go through … that’s really small potatoes compared to what can happen to you.”

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17 rare and unusual health stories out of Omaha

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Matthew Eledge and husband Elliot Dougherty plan to explain her out-of-the-ordinary birth to their daughter in terms she can understand: that her grandmother furnished the garden where she grew, and that her aunt, Lea Yribe, generously supplied the seeds.

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Thought to be brain dead, doctors took former Creighton Bluejays play-by-play announcer T. Scott Marr off life support. Before his family settled on a funeral home, they decided to see their dad one more time. When they got there, he was awake and speaking. 

Karla Perez was 22 weeks pregnant when she suffered a catastrophic brain bleed and was declared brain dead. Her unborn child was alive, but wouldn't survive delivery. So family and doctors kept her on life support. Angel was born eight weeks later.

Darnisha Ladd never imagined Snapchat would help save her life after she suffered a stroke. But needing a precise timeline of events, doctors and family relied on a post on the phone app and were able to give her a needed medication in time.

Lindsey and Derek Teten's triplets are one in a million. Literally. The Nebraska City couple's three daughters, born in late June 2017, are identical and were conceived without fertility treatments. The girls were the second set of spontaneous triplets born at Methodist Women's Hospital. The first set, also girls, was born in 2015.

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