The Big 5-0.
People often joke about turning 50 and how that age makes them sound old. But in Jon Lindstrom’s case, what happened shortly after he reached that milestone was no joke.
Lindstrom, a Broomfield resident and the winner of eight CGA championship titles including three Mid-Amateurs, turned 50 on Sept. 3. Later that same week, his wife, Stacey, had scheduled him for a physical exam — both because it made sense to get a checkup at age 50 and because Jon’s company would deposit several hundred dollars into the family’s health savings account at the beginning of the year if he underwent a physical in September or October.
The general checkup included a blood test. Lindstrom recalls thinking “the doctor was going to call me back (a few days later) and say my cholesterol was too high and to stop eating pizza.”
The doctor did indeed call, but the message wasn’t quite so predictable.
Lindstrom’s results from a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test were alarmingly high. PSA levels above 4.0 often draw the attention of doctors, and Lindstrom’s figure was over 15. Such elevated levels can be an indication of prostate cancer, though follow-up tests are the norm to be sure.
Lindstrom initially wasn’t sure what to make of it, but his doctor explained the PSA test and gave him some websites to gather further information. He recommended that Lindstrom undergo a colonoscopy, which subsequently came back clean.
The doctor also referred Lindstrom to a Boulder-area urologist, who did an exam and an ultrasound of his bladder. Based on those two things and the PSA number, he recommended a biopsy of the prostate, which was done on Nov. 1, just three weeks after Lindstrom had made match play while competing in his fifth U.S. Mid-Amateur.
The result, which Lindstrom learned on Nov. 15, hit him like a ton of bricks. The biopsy showed he had a very aggressive cancer in his prostate in two locations.
“Your heart falls into your stomach,” he said of his initial reaction. “You start thinking about mortality and the kids (Jon and Stacey have two children, Jake, 13, and Mia, 11). Do I have life insurance in place? And what’s going to happen? Your mind goes straight to the worst possible thing and it kind of puts a timeline to your life, which forever you really don’t think about.”
Lindstrom and his doctor discussed the options and in short order he decided to undergo surgery to remove the prostate — and, hopefully, all the cancer in his body.
After the irritation caused to the prostate by the biopsy was fully healed, Lindstrom underwent the surgery in mid-January. Though such operations can last at little as two hours, he was in the O.R. for six.
And, in retrospect, it sounds as if Lindstrom and his doctors — thanks to what was found through that physical set up by wife Stacey — acted with not much time to spare.
“It was an aggressive cancer,” Lindstrom said. “My prostate was pretty close to fully engulfed with cancer; it was kind of a nasty ball of cancer. There’s always the worry that even if a handful of cancer cells get outside the prostate, then they can go anywhere in your system and cause issues. But there was no signs that it had spread. That was a good sign.
“Prior to the surgery, (the doctor) did feel like I had some time to make a decision, but once I knew the options I wanted to do it sooner rather than later. Once it was removed, the point he made was that now that I see really how bad it was — because you can’t really tell through an MRI or an ultrasound — we probably didn’t have much time before it would pierce the prostate and then the cancer could have spread. So without a doubt it was a good thing (it was discovered no later than it was).”
Since the surgery, Lindstrom has had two blood tests, both of which have indicated his PSA levels are now 0. He said he will continue to take such blood tests every three months for two years, after which he’ll have annual tests.
“There’s no signs of prostate cancer, at least in my blood system or the things they test,” Lindstrom said. “The prognosis looks great. … I’ll probably always have some doubt, so the real goal now is to make sure those blood tests every three months for two years are clean. It’s something that you have to monitor, but the signs are good that we got it out in time.”
And Lindstrom said he’s experienced no residual issues from the surgical removal of his prostate.
“I joke that all my plumbing is working,” he said. “There’s a couple issues — it can affect sexual function; the other is urinary tract, incontinence and so forth. But I felt like I had a great surgeon. I was very cautious about recovery — I did everything he told me to do. A combination of those things plays into the fact that I really don’t have any issues at all now.”
Lindstrom came forward to share his health-care roller-coaster ride over the last seven months in hopes that his story can keep other men from facing the same situation — or worse — by not getting tested. Arnold Palmer famously did the same thing after being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997, going on a public-awareness campaign on the subject and urging people to get screened.
“It wasn’t on my radar at all, then all of a sudden it went from 0 to 100 with a (mortality) scare,” Lindstrom said of prostate cancer. “I was telling everyone I golf with who are over 40 to go get the blood test at the very least during your next physical because you never know. I had no symptoms or family history of this.
“Now that I’m a prostate cancer expert (he said with a bit of a laugh) … Obviously I had cancer before I was 50 because it didn’t just happen overnight, so I’d recommend at least having the discussion of the blood test starting at 40. Obviously I had it at some point in my 40s. The earlier you get it, the more options you have. That’s the biggest thing. There’s several different routes you can go, but the sooner you know, the more options you have.”
According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer is the second-most-common form of cancer in American men, behind skin cancer. About one in nine men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime.
Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death among American men; lung cancer is first. But early diagnosis turns the odds solidly in favor of the men involved.
“Prostate cancer can be a serious disease, but most men diagnosed with prostate cancer do not die from it,” the ACS reports. “In fact, more than 2.9 million men in the United States who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point are still alive today.”
While Lindstrom spent two nights in the hospital following his surgery, then two weeks of home rest while a catheter was in, he fully recovered in the expected six weeks.
In fact, while he wasn’t allowed to swing a golf club during that recovery period, he scheduled a Tucson golf trip six weeks to the day after his surgery. The first round he played marked the first day he had taken a full swing since the operation.
“I did go and played three rounds, and I actually played pretty good surprisingly,” he said. “Surgery is stressful and it’s all in your abdomen, so your stomach muscles are all torn up. It takes a while for those to heel, but six weeks later I had no problem playing golf. I played three days in a row (at the very end of February).
“The first nine I played, I shot 2 under, and I ended up shooting even-par the first day, 3 over the second and 2 under the last day. It really surprised me (how quickly his game returned to form given the layoff and the surgery). Granted, I was able to putt a little at home in the meantime. I was fearful of taking a full swing because I didn’t want to pull any of the sutures out. I hit a handful of chip shots the week before, but nothing more than 40 yards. So that was really the first time of making a full swing at it. I was shocked.”
Lindstrom played his first competitive round in mid-March in St. George, Utah, where he and fellow Lakewood Country Club member Brooks Ferring shot 67 but failed to qualify for the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship. “It wasn’t an ideal outcome but it wasn’t like I said I need another two or three months to recover,” Lindstrom said. “I felt like I could have shot that score whether I had the surgery or not.”
Looking ahead, Lindstrom doesn’t anticipate cutting back on his tournament schedule this year in the wake of the surgery. Quite the contrary. With him becoming eligible for many senior events, his calendar may be even more full. He plans on playing in the senior division of the Twin Peaks Invitational this weekend, then will defend his title in the CGA Four-Ball May 4-6. Also in May, he’ll compete in a tournament at Whisper Rock in Scottsdale, and will go to Tucson to try to qualify for his first U.S. Senior Open. Of course, that national championship is being held at The Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs, where Lindstrom and teammate Tom Lawrence won The Broadmoor Invitation scratch four-ball title last year.
All in all, things seem pretty much back to normal for Lindstrom after an anything-but-normal last seven months.
