My surgeon called today with what he said was "excellent" news about the pathology. Nodes clear, all cancer contained within the prostate, on two sides but largest dimension 1 cm, a Gleason 7 of 3 + 4, and nice clear margins all the way around. He said I had a 90/95% chance that I'd never be bothered by PCa again.
He has faxed the pathology report to me and I am looking forward to reviewing it with my urologist.
While I'd rather my Gleason be 6 than 7, which it was according the the first pathologist who read the slides, my decision to go with surgery was based on the chance it might be a 7 in which case I wanted the pathology afterwards to better know just where I stood. As many of you know, High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) has been approved in Canada for a number of years and the Maple Leaf clinic in Toronto has three to five year results tracking as good, or better than radical prostatectomy results. There is also a HIFU clinic in Winnipeg run by Dr. Drachenberg. I think there are others, but these are the two I checked out. Of course, as HIFU has only been around for 10 years, longer term results are not available, and the third generation (I believe it's third generation) machines now in use are showing better out-of-the-box results than earlier generation machines. If the second pathology reading had also been six, I'd likely have opted for HIFU. The Gleason seven made no difference to the validity of HIFU as a treatment option, but knowing my nature as I do I wanted the pathology, the pathology that came in today, to know where I stood. So, I opted for surgery.
I know this PCa can pop back up someday, and it may, but in the meantime I'm a happy camper tonight.
I'll probably go back to Sleepless when it's time for my first PSA test while I await the results.
Sleepless, AKA Sheldon
Age 67 in Apil '09 at news of 4 of 12 cores positive T2B and Gleason 3 + 3 and 5% to 25% PSA 1.5
Re-read of slides in June said Gleason 3 + 4 same four cores 5% to 15%
June 29 daVinci prostatectomy, Dr. Eric Estey, at Royal Alexandra Hospital Edmonton one night stay
Flew home to Winnipeg on July 3 after 5 nights in Ramada Inn --- perfect recovery spot!
Catheter out July 9, so far, so good