BARRIGEL
TESTIMONIALS

Well, thanks to things like treatment advances and greater awareness, more men are surviving their prostate cancer diagnosis. But it doesn't end there because so many men undergoing prostate cancer treatment still have to fight for their quality of life and their dignity. The man you're about to meet is a soldier, but he's also a survivor. Hello. My name is Michael Best. I'm seventy one years old. Hello. My name is Jackie Best, and I'm seventy two years old. I joined the army back in April of nineteen seventy four. At the end of nineteen seventy four, I did my first tour of duty in Germany, and I stayed in Germany for the first three years. Came back to States, and I was stationed at, Fort Stewart, Georgia. Oh my goodness. I met Jackie back in nineteen ninety here in Augusta, Georgia as I was going through, military training school. And, I was actually at a party, and it was my birthday. I used to love to dance. That's why I would go to places, you know, the clubs and things like that. Well, I said, maybe I just go back to the barracks. So I got up to leave, and in the back of the room, I'll let my wife tell you the rest of the story. Well, I love to dance. So I asked him to dance, and that's where it started from. We were married in March on my birthday, twenty second of nineteen ninety seven. I'm his birthday gift forever. That's right. And I thank God. And he won't forget it even. That's right. She won't let me. We have fourteen grandchildren and nine great grandchildren. Oh. Oh, yeah. Oh, okay. For the kids who are thirteen. Mhmm. I can do all I was in Liberty University going through for my pastorial counseling, degree for master's. And then that's about the same time that I met doctor Clawson. My name is Zach Clawson. I'm a urologic oncologist at the Georgia Cancer Center in Augusta, Georgia. You know, I think with urology, there's such a personal relationship with patients, and I really got a feel as a medical student that this is the kind of patients that you're gonna see in the clinic. You're gonna maybe take them to the operating room, but you're gonna follow them probably for their entire life. And really, the cancer patients are the ones that I really connect well with. Hey, guys. How are you? Hey. It's good to see you. How are you? Good to see you too. We're getting over your prostate cancer results in the clinic. Okay? Okay. Alright. Go on this way. You know, I never really felt afraid, but it's based on I know what it's based on. It's my faith in God. I can do all things through Christ's strength, isn't it? And that's that's where I felt. Yeah. You know? The biopsy did show some prostate cancer. So I know that's not what anybody wants to hear. Oh, definitely not now. We're gonna talk about options for treatment. You know, as a urologist, prostate cancer is the most common cancer that we treat and, it encompasses a huge portion of our practice whether it's localized all the way to advanced prostate cancer. Localized prostate cancer is the most prevalent or the most common in the United States and across the world. What localized prostate cancer is the disease is confined to the prostate. It hasn't spread to the lymph nodes or the bones or other organs. We've had a tremendous amount of advancements in metastatic prostate cancer in terms of extending not just longevity, but quality of life. When it comes to localized prostate cancer, we have sort of our classic ones that we've had for a long time, surgery or radiation. If we can catch this early and we can treat them, this is the goal is to extend life later on. You know, the goal is to try to avoid advanced prostate cancer. I had an uncle that died from prostate cancer. It's because he never followed up on anything. Because once the cancer gets outside of the prostate, you know, and you get limited. So we know that our two most common treatments for localized prostate cancer are surgery, removal of the prostate, or radiation using radiation beams to treat the prostate cancer in the prostate. And we know with localized treatment options, we're shooting for a cure for these patients, but there's often side effects associated with any treatment that we're gonna do. Taking the prostate out, I didn't like the side effects of that. Radiation does damage to your body, and so you have to what what's best for you. With radiation, those same nerves that affect both incontinence and sexual function are right there in the radiation field as well. So we know that over time, men might may have some sexual dysfunction that deteriorates. They also may have some overactive bladder during and after the radiotherapy as well. And so, the third one with the radiation that we don't see quite as much with surgery but more with radiation is rectal toxicity. When we think about the space between the rectum and the prostate, these organs are very close to each other. About a centimeter. This is a very personal area that we're dealing with. Right? And so when the radiation beams from treatment are hitting the prostate, they're also hitting the rectum as well and that's where we think the rectal toxicity comes from. And rectal toxicity can take many forms. It could be constipation above baseline. It could be diarrhea above baseline. It could be rectal bleeding. We've had a solution for rectal toxicity for a while now and this is the rectal spacers to create space between the prostate and the rectum to basically allow the radiation therapist to be aggressive with their planning and spare the rectum from the radiation therapy. I've been doing rectal spacing since about twenty twenty. And so in twenty twenty two, I learned about Baragel, and it quickly became my favorite rectal spacer. Baragel rectal spacer is intended to temporarily position the anterior rectal wall away from the prostate during radiotherapy for prostate cancer. And in creating this space, it is the intent of Baragel rectal spacer to reduce the radiation dose delivered to the anterior rectum. With the Baragel rectal spacer, we have the opportunity to try to prevent the rectal toxicity that we know happens with radiotherapy. When we're talking about Baragel, I really like to discuss this with my patients because this is truly a quality of life procedure. We decided to do radiation with Baragel. For doctor Klaus, I felt very comfortable because he gave off the aura of someone that was concerned, not just a doctor, you know. And, when I feel that way, there's a sense of calm, of peace. So we decided after many discussions to pillow talk, late night talks and early morning talks and things of that nature, we weighed our options. And I said, well, you know, based on our research as well, they say, yeah. That would be the better way to go. When we do the procedure, it generally takes about ten to fifteen minutes, and this may vary based on everybody set up in the in the clinic or the ASC or the operating room. The barrigel rectal spacer is gonna be inside you until your radiotherapy is done. And then over time, the body will resorb it. This is hyaluronic acid, natural product in the body. And so when it's done its job and you've done your radiation, it will naturally reabsorb itself. It was rectum from radiation. After doing the radiation with Baragel, I had no rectal side effects. Baragel is the only rectal space that I use in my practice. And this is based on my my experience, the data that we have, the patient safety, the comfort level that I have doing the procedure, and just the results that we've seen not only in the clinical trial, but also in the real world as well. When we look at the prostate cancer survivorship journey, we're gonna try to cure this, but there's also a quality of life assessment because we expect you to live another thirty, forty years as a prostate cancer survivor. We see them in follow-up for PSA surveillance. We ask them the questions. It's really rewarding to be able to have that feedback that they're doing great. They're not having the diarrhea and the constipation that we worry about. That can happen without a rectal spacer. We found that the radiation and Varigel working hand in hand could help someone, and that's why we're here, to help someone. It makes you think of it that how far cancer has come because now it's not a death sentence but you have to listen to your body. When something is wrong, you have to go to the doctor. He's been a minister now about five years, and I've seen him grow so much. My faith has become much stronger. I've become more mature in my faith because of the, prostate cancer. What's more important, living or these things that we, you know, walk around saying, well, if I don't have that, I just don't have any life. You know, I'm just glad to be alive. And this is what we have to say. That's it. That's it. What a very special couple. And we'd like to thank minister Michael Best and Jackie Best and, of course, doctor Zachary Clausen. And for more information about the Baragel Rectal Spacer, go to baragel dot com. And, of course, you can also learn more at the balancing act dot com. Now stay tuned for some important safety information.