Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning is talking about his prostate cancer diagnosis to encourage men to be proactive about their healthcare.
What was your initial reaction to your diagnosis of prostate cancer?
I was shocked because I felt so good and I was asymptomatic and working out. I was feeling strong and feeling great. I had no symptoms whatsoever, and then my urologist called me and said, “Hey, man, your PSA is a little elevated. I want you to get an MRI.”
I told them on the phone that I felt great. He said, “Well, unfortunately, if you have prostate cancer, then a lot of times you have no symptoms in the beginning stages.” When I scheduled the MRI, I was thinking about the millions of men out there who are walking around feeling great, and they have cancer in their bodies. I had stage three cancer, and I didn’t even know it.
If I had not gone to the doctor, it would have spread through my body, and it would have killed me within a year or two. I’m hoping that my voice, my experience, and my being transparent with my diagnosis will encourage men, especially men of color, because it’s an epidemic.
You battled serious kidney disease in 2003, which led you to have to sit out for the rest of the NBA season. How did that experience differ from being diagnosed with prostate cancer?
The biggest difference is that, with prostate cancer, I was asymptomatic. With kidney disease, I had symptoms. I had very low energy, and I was very lethargic, I had swelling in my lower extremities, my legs, my feet, ankles — everything was swollen. I had foam in my urine. It was bad. My kidneys were failing. Luckily, now my kidney function is stable and it’s so much better.
As far as the surgery is concerned, both of them were very invasive surgeries. When I had my kidney transplant, I was in such good shape as an athlete, so my recovery time was cut in half. It took me a good six months to recover from the kidney transplant surgery. I was back on the court again, going full tilt.
On the other hand, my prostate surgery — a robotic proctectomy — was three months ago, but it feels like it was almost yesterday. I’m all healed up, but I’m still having some urinary complications and other complications that only time will heal. I’m able to go to the gym and work out moderately, I’m able to play golf, but I’m still in the healing process.
What was the most important thing to have during your prostate cancer treatment and recovery?
Support. I really didn’t want many people to know, save for my business manager and people who were in my close circle. I wasn’t ready for my kids to know until I knew I had this thing under control. In the beginning stages, I just kept a tight-knit group of people that I wanted to know, and I just went on and got the procedure done.
My lady, Mariona, she took incredible care of me, and I just had to give my body time to rest. I stayed home, and I made sure I walked every day and kept my body moving. I also started eating a lot of foods that were healing, anti-inflammatory foods. I didn’t eat any fried foods or a lot of baked foods. It was no dairy or meat, but I ate a lot of fish and a lot of veggies. It kind of sped up the healing process and was easy on my digestive system.
Do you have a message for other men who are in your position?
The number one message I want men to know is that we all take our health for granted until it’s our own health that’s affected. I took my health for granted until something like this happened, and then that’s when I realized how blessed I am to have the ability to go to the doctor and just get a checkup.
Take the opportunity to go to the doctor and be proactive with your health. It can save your life, it can save your family the stress and grief, and it could keep you on this Earth.
You can continue to take care of your kids, support your family, and do the things that you love to do just by being proactive with your health. The only way that we’re going to tackle these statistics is for men to be educated and for us to change the narrative of men not going to the doctor. That’s the only way that we’re going to change this. We have to start talking about it. We have to break down barriers of men being embarrassed to talk about their health. We have to start having a dialogue, and we have to put things into action. Nothing is going to start changing unless we start talking about it.
