There's nothing that gets your attention quite like cancer. Whoever you were the minute before you were diagnosed - that person has changed forever.

It was three weeks ago yesterday that I underwent surgery for prostate cancer. Sometimes I forget that it was me. But there are ample reminders.

Cancer shakes your world right to its foundation. Everything you took for granted is replaced with uncertainty.

The idea that your body can conspire and plot against you is suddenly conceivable. You find yourself snapping out of your own reality.

It happened to me the first time I sat in the radiation waiting room at Rochester General.

I remember shaking like one of those little dogs that piddles on the floor at the veterinarian's office.

My surgeon prepared me for the probability that the cancer had spread outside my prostate. But I am thankful to report that doesn't appear to be the case. I'll know for sure in a few weeks when I go for another round of tests.

Choosing the right treatment is one of the most confusing things about a cancer diagnosis, particularly prostate cancer. Everyone kept telling me not to worry; they knew somebody who lived with prostate cancer for years.

Just the other day I listened to a report that said prostate cancer is "curable" 90 percent of the time.

But you have to consider the numbers. If 187,000 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer last year, that's still 10 percent, nearly 20,000, who are locked in a struggle with it.

That's not so reassuring.

And when you have cancer, that's all you think about: what are my chances?

The cards, letters, e-mails, and phone calls from well-wishers were a blessed distraction. And I am so grateful.

I still grieve for the people who I could tell are going through this alone.

But the truth is that we never really know for sure who'll make it and who won't.

Learning how to live with that makes living with cancer just a little bit easier.