Greg Noss might be the only guy in the valley that would tell you he’s fortunate to have seriously injured his shoulder.

“When I tore my shoulder and had to get it put back together, I thought, ‘Why not go see my doctor for a routine checkup and some blood work to see how I’m doing?’” he said. It had been several years since Greg had seen his doctor for a routine physical; as an electrical contractor, avid outdoorsman and BLM trails crew volunteer, Greg always felt healthy living his active lifestyle. But receiving the results to his blood test from his primary care doctor changed his health outlook entirely.

“Basically, my cancer cells were really high,” Greg says. His blood had been screened for Prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, a protein produced by cells of the prostate gland. “My doctor made an appointment for me with Dr. Brian Murphy of Rocky Mountain Urology, and I knew it was pretty serious.”

Greg underwent a biopsy, which determined that cancer was not of great concern immediately, but would require active surveillance. He visited Dr. Murphy several times over the next three months to review his PSA numbers, and together they decided considering the results and his age, Greg should have his prostate surgically removed. Together, patient and doctor decided to set the surgery date a few months out so Greg could fit in plenty of outdoor activities, including river trips, before the procedure and the resulting recovery began.

In December of 2015 with the successful surgery behind him, Greg began his last phase of treatment — six and a half weeks of radiation. “So far so good,” he says. “There’s been no sign the cancer has come back to this day.”

“Dr. Murphy is an exceptional surgeon, and he spent time to explain things in great detail and make sure I understood my options,” Greg says. “I feel very fortunate that the services we have here at Valley View are pretty much second to none. People often travel out of the valley to have a procedure like this done, but we have the facility and the physicians here to take care of what we need. It really helps to have a place like this close to home where we can receive this kind of care.”