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.
Pete,
Things to find out:
Age?
Any other health problems?
PSA?
Gleason Score? eg. 4 & 3 or 4 & 4
Are they dealing with a Prostate Cancer Center?
How many operations has the surgeon done?
Very bad "bed-side manner" does not allows mean a very bad surgeon but it does make me suspicious. Also, get copies and keep them of every medical test and always write down questions before meetings with the doctors and make notes of every meeting. Get a filing system as you can get swamped with all the information and appointments.
I think your friend might well benefit from reading through a copy of A Strange Place so that gets a basic view on the entire issue of prostate cancer and some idea of what she and her husband need to do to progress their decision making process in an orderly way - especially by not panicking.
If you cannot download the booklet for her, please give me her postal address and I'll get one in the mail. Delivery is usually ten days to the US.
Frank's questions and advice are good. I'd say it was essential to get hold of a copy of the biopsy report and to get a second opinion Recognised Expert Pathologist as to just what the Gleason Score is. If indeed it is "borderline 8" then it sems likely the score is 7b (3+4) but this neds to be checked - especially if all the samples are an identical score, which would be somewhat unusual.
Unfortunatly too many doctors seem to have the attitude presented by your friend and one of the soultions, if their insurance plan lets them, is to find a doctor they can talk to who will give them good information. There are many of those around too.
Good luck - and keep asking questions - there are no dumb ones. All of us had to ask them because we knew nothing when we were diaagnosed.
