A Salamander's Tale

Book excerpt: Staring in the face of prostate cancer at age thirty-five and metastatic disease and proposed surgical castration at age forty, Paul Steinberg was forced to take two simultaneous journeys. The first was to transition from doctor to patient and surrender his physical health to a medical establishment he knew from firsthand knowledge would be using approaches that would be outdated within a few years. The second was a spiritual journey. His search for a higher meaning in his life sent him as far as walking over hot coals with Tony Robbins. Using the salamander as his role model, Steinberg, a college-health and sports psychiatrist, takes a look at the evolution of the regenerative capabilities of cold-blooded vertebrates like the salamander and at what we as humans have lost and gained in our warm-bloodedness. How do human beings regenerate? How do we redeem ourselves when our capacity for regeneration is limited? How did the prostate evolve, and how does prostate cancer develop? With wit and humor, Steinberg tackles lust and sex, and ultimately time and death and the gods. Having lived longer than virtually anyone else with metastatic prostate cancer, he uses his knowledge as a doctor and experience as a patient to provide a story of endurance and perseverance, weaving a tale of grace, regeneration, and redemption—just not the kind of regeneration and redemption that he or anyone else would expect.