This forum is for the discussion of anything to do with Prostate Cancer. There are only four rules:
No fundraisers, no commercials (although it is OK to recommend choices of treatment or medical people based on your personal research; invitations to participate in third-party surveys are also acceptable, provided there is no compensation to YANA);
No harvesting e-mail addresses for Spam;
No insults or flaming - be polite and respectful at all times and understand that there may be a variety of points of view, all of which may have some validity;
Opinions are OK, but please provide as much factual evidence as possible for any assertions that you are making
Failure to abide by these simple rules will result in the immediate and permanent suspension of your posting privileges.
Since this is an International Forum, please specify your location in your post.
Re: Just had surgery - less than one week out - fearful. 47 years old.
G'day Leo,
Sorry to hear of your distress and concerns. These are quite understandable and may in part be due to the fact that your doctors haven't provided enough information to you. The dragons under the bed are always more frightening at night and often are found to have gone completely in daylight.
Please read up on the disease and get to understand what should scare you and what is......well, not so scary. I wrote up a bit I called The Elephant In The Room which may help you get a handle on these issues.
Finally, have you been reading the experiences of other men who have had a simialr experience to yours? The stories are indexed at TREATMENT EXPERIENCES
I hope you understand that your 3+3=6 Gleason Score is the minimum score you can have and still be said to have PCa. A score of 3+4=7 is not much higher and carries very little extra risk.
Like Frank, I'd be very surprised if the disease ever gets you. It hasn't got me yet - and I was diagnosed 15 years ago.
Good luck, keep asking questions and I'm sure you'll find that you gain knowledge and lose fear.
Re: Just had surgery - less than one week out - fearful. 47 years old.
Leo,
I had surgery more than 4 years ago, my Gleason was 4+3. Like you I had a very small amount of penetration of the capsule boundary but no infiltration into lymph nodes or seminal vesicles.
At my place of surgery, Waukesha Medical Center in Wisconsin, the standard protocol was to recommend follow up radiation if there was penetration. But the radiation should wait until full urinary continence had returned.
So three months after my surgery I did a radiation treatment series of only 60Gy, since the amount of penetration was so small.
I've never had to take any hormone treatments, my health is really excellent and my PSA is undetectable.
So this is another possible path. Read up.
