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Hi,
I am a 55 yr old from Washington state & here is my story:
Began seeing a Urologist annually when I was 48 as there is a history of prostate cancer in my Father's family, he was diagnosed at 75 with a small tumor & elected brachytherapy to keep it in check. So, for the past 6 years my PSA has been between .37 to .45 as I have it checked every year in March plus the DRE which has always been OK. This year I had no problem at my check up in March, but around the first week of October was noticing some symptoms of what I thought was possibly Prostatitis or a bladder infection. I went in to see my Urologist at the end of the month after the frequency to urinate etc. did not subside, he checked me out with the DRE & urinanlysis which both came out fine. But, decided to do an another PSA just to be safe, it came back at 2.7, which prompted him to schedule me for a biospy. Had it done the first week of November with a 16 core sampling & two days later was told that I had 1 core with 15% cancerous cells on the right side of my prostate. Had a follow up consult with my wife present & the Dr. was recommending a radical prostectomy, which is tentatively scheduled for mid January 2012. Since that time I have been in a tail spin trying to get educated on what are my other options & setting up a second opinion. I really appreciate having a place to hear other men's stories & how they made these tough decisions & being able to share mine as well. All comments & advice welcome!
Tom,
You have a history of prostate cancer not killing people in your family. Unless the gleason score is greater than 6 you should consider active surveillance and not a prostatectomy. If you change your diet there is a good chance that if you go back in a year they may not even find cancer. A very high percentage of 75 year old men will have a small tumour in their prostate but never die of prostate cancer. Also, the longer you wait the better the treatment you will get if you ever do need treatment.
Get another opinion from a different doctor.
I never know how people find this Forum, so I have no idea if you came acros it fortuitously or if you started at the opening page of the site and worked your way through the sequential pages dealing with the basics of the disease and options. If you haven't followed the latter route, try it - you might find it helful. Go to WELCOME PAGE and hit the DON'T PANIC and follow on from there.
It may interest you to read a piece I wrote entitled WHY I DID NOT CHOOSE SURGERY OR ANY OTHER TREATMENT . I suggest this, not to suggest that you ake the same decision as I did - we all have to decide what is most suitable for ourslves, but it does show how I arrived at my decision and what I took into account.
Good luck and keep asking questions - there are no dumb ones.
Tom:
My decision making process and ongoing experience with one form of treatment (proton therapy) is thoroughly documented in my journal, you may find it helpful; see http://protondon.blogspot.com/
Best wishes Don O.
Tom,
I'm recovering from LRP surgery as we speak. I had the surgery Dec. 1st and was home Dec. 3rd with very little pain.
Here's how I found out... I went in for a routine physical Sept. 2011 to find my psa at 5.5(44 years old) The primary care doctor wanted me back in 3 months to do another psa teat. I agreed of course and was about to hang up with the nurse giving me the information when she said "If I were you don't wait go see a Urologist"
Well, I did what she said and saw the Urologist within 3 days. He did his own psa test and got a 6.0 and the DRE was normal. He reccomended a biopsy which I scheduled for a week out. Resukts came back in about 10 days, 1 out of 12 coes positive and rated 4+4.
I started researching as much as possible and also talked to some in my situation. I also met with a radiologist to get his take on everything and a few days later back in my Urologist office to discuss a few more questions about the surgery and make the appointment.
I did have a bone and CT scan before my decision was made because of the gleason score of 8.
The surgery went great, my surgeon saved both nerve bundles and removed some lymphnodes while in there. Some pain the first time getting out of bed and then trying to get used to the catheter was no fun but not painful.
I went back to the Urologist today to get the catheter out and was told the final pathology report went down to a gleason 7 and all contained to the prostate capsule. He did say that the one tumor was on the move but all margins were negative.
I liked the idea that I would be leaving the prostate behind and that they could dice it up when out and find out what really was going on inside it.
First day without catheter and do need the pads, I will slowly be working on that. Good luck with your search and I hope your able to rest easy on your decision. I'm very pleased so far and glad I moved on this fairly quick. Email me if you have any questions!
Sorry to hear about your diagnosis, the good news is that you have plenty of time to understand your options and to make the right decision. Your PSA is low, only 1 of 16 cores came back positive (and only 15% at that) and the DRE is negative. You don't provide your Gleason score but given everything your prognosis is very good and there is no need to rush into surgery.
Best Regards,
David
http://www.yananow.org/Mentors/DavidW2.htm
i went through the same thing and am seattle . if you still need a referral, let me know and i will get you my email. I have a tremendous doctor/surgeon.
