Hello, my name is Mike Kluis, and I am a prostate cancer survivor!
I have been married to my wife Jan, for 26 years. We live southeast of Chandler where we raised our two sons. Austin is 25 and currently in his fourth year of medical school at the University of Minnesota. Logan is 22 and beginning his first year of graduate school for Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University.
My cancer story begins approximately two and one-half years ago, although I didn’t know it at the time. Austin was working as a medical scribe in oncology and began telling me how important it is to begin having regular checkups to create a baseline so if anything would change, it would be recognized. I kept telling him I was too young, but he persisted by telling me he would see people every day that were younger than me. He emphasized that an early diagnosis would have saved their life and made dealing with cancer much easier. During this time, our health insurance, which we get through Jan’s work, began offering premium discounts for having wellness checkups. My first checkup was scheduled.
A few days after my appointment, I received a call about my bloodwork. It seemed my prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level was elevated. I was told not to be alarmed. It is not uncommon for people to have higher readings and be just fine, but an appointment was scheduled to retest in six months.
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