Scared

You are in my prayers. Please, have faith and trust God. Ask for His help and guidance. Say a prayer and believe. Wishing you to heal soon. God bless you always.

How did the appointment go pahoakid? Hopefully your doctor was able to ease your mind a bit by explaining that your cancer is low-grade therefore you have a number of options. I'm curious if he really pushed for the surgery as most urologists tend to do. I am going through this right now with a close friend.... almost the same age (58), Gleason & PSA numbers as you. We are still in the process of doing a lot of research and deciding the best course of treatment. Prostate cancer is one of the slowest growing cancers so don't feel you need to make a decision immediately. Surgery is not even something we are considering because of his age even though the cancer is through his entire prostate (still low grade). Right now we are leaning towards Brachytherapy because should the cancer come back years down the road, external beam therapy would still be an option. We are also going to OHSU (Oregon Health & Science University) to speak with the best of the best. Keep us updated and hang in there. Your cancer was caught early. Even though you will need to adjust to some changes, remember that your life is not being threatened by this. Thoughts & prayers to you.

pahoakid,
your situation is familiar to me. I'm 58 and went through this in January 2009. My PSA was going up every year when it maxed out at 4.1. My Gleason score came back at 7 after the biopsy.
Since I was not feeling bad, had no problems with incontinence or sex drive I was in disbelief and I like you was told that I had options and could wait 6 months before I did anything.
My disbelief lead me to get second opinion and since I live in Austin TX, I made the decision to go Houston to the MD. Anderson Cancer center. After discussion with them I elected to have a radical robotic prostatectomy, which I still feel was the best decision I could have made. I have read my pathology reports and and feel lucky that from the 47 lymph nodes, and my prostate removed the cancer was contained to the prostate, but they felt I was lucky since the Gleason score from them had gone to an 8, and the PSA had also increased.
3 years latter I am still clean with a PSA of <.1.
good luck and god bless.

pahoakid,
your situation is familiar to me. I'm 58 and went through this in January 2009. My PSA was going up every year when it maxed out at 4.1. My Gleason score came back at 7 after the biopsy.
Since I was not feeling bad, had no problems with incontinence or sex drive I was in disbelief and I like you was told that I had options and could wait 6 months before I did anything.
My disbelief lead me to get second opinion and since I live in Austin TX, I made the decision to go Houston to the MD. Anderson Cancer center. After discussion with them I elected to have a radical robotic prostatectomy, which I still feel was the best decision I could have made. I have read my pathology reports and and feel lucky that from the 47 lymph nodes, and my prostate removed the cancer was contained to the prostate, but they felt I was lucky since the Gleason score from them had gone to an 8, and the PSA had also increased.
3 years latter I am still clean with a PSA of <.1.
good luck and god bless.

texjoeb,

My partner and I, after doing a considerable amount of "research" on our own, came to the conclusion that a radical robotic prostatectomy was going to be our best option. We then sat down with my urologist, the one who did the biopsy. He spent 45 minutes with us. Very patient and understanding. He laid out all our options, the pros and cons of each. Again, after considering all the information presented, he asked us, which way do you think you want to go? Again, we came to the same conclusion, and said so. He said that was what he would recommend also. We didn't feel pushed in any one direction.

Thursday we sat down with the urologist who will be doing the surgery. We were referred to him through my urologist. Again, he was very patient and understanding. He explained the entire procedure to us, including the pros and cons (risks) of this, or any surgery for that matter.

He was very explicit about explaing the procedure, which sort of "freaked us out", but we wouldn't have wanted it any other way. The facts are the facts. He told us about the "holes" that would be made in my belly, how he controls the "instruments", catheters, leakage, pads, ed, etc. He explained each and every one carefully, as well as the ways to manage them.

While we were "freaked out" as I said, on the other hand we felt strangely comfortable as we finished, and walked out of there.

In wrapping this up, we are going to "talk" about it a little more this weekend, and schedule the "event" next week. He wants to wait a minimum of 8 weeks out from my biopsy. He said this is needed because my biopsy may very well still be inflamed. My biopsy was on 12/23, so the earliest I could schedule it for is 2/23/12. My fluid is still rather reddish, so that made sense to me. I know there will be no fluid post surgery.

Thank you so much for your support, and I am glad to hear you are doing well. I am slowly getting past the "anger" phase of my diagnosis, and am able to begin reaching out to people. This is helping.

Thanks again, and let's keep in touch.

Terry

After a long day at OHSU yesterday, we too have decided on the radical robotic prostatectomy. My friend was really leaning towards external radiation therapy, but the 6 months of horomone therapy was the deal breaker for him. Surgery really seems the best way to go.

Joe: Was wondering about the side effects after the surgery and how long they lasted. How long before you completely recovered? Also since you are 3 years out, do you experience any long lasting effects like ED or incontinence? Sorry for all the questions.

I just went through what you are experiencing. I was diagnosed back in July with prostate cancer as a result of an elevated PSA of 5.1 and a biopsy that showed up with tumors in four of the twelve cores. All scans and tests indicated the tumors were contained within my prostate. After consulting with my urologist and discussing the options which ranged from 1. Do nothing and monitor the situation with periodic biopsies 2. radiation treatment and 3 surgery. The upshot was that I elected to have my prostate removed and did so four weeks ago at the Florida Hospital where Dr. Vipul Patel performed a prostatectamy using a da Vinci robot. The procedure took 2 1/2 hours. I spent less than 24 hours in the hospital and was up and walked a mile around the hospital corridors within eight hours after my surgery. I had a catheter for only four days. I had minimal pain and in the past four weeks the five wounds on my stomach have completely healed. I have been very religious about waking at least two miles each day and have had no problems following surgery. If you are contemplating surgery as a treatment, I think you will find that the robotic procedure is much less invasive than conventional radical surgery and the recovery period is much quicker. If I had it to do all over again, I would not change one decision. Good luck and Good Bless.