pre-op and decision follow up

Aus: Thanks forthe info. I will ask tomorrow when I see the Dr. I am in a position that when I bring something up ( because of my relationship with the medical community ) that they do it rather than fight with me and convince me that it is not necessary. Barrister

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Age 64, PSA 3.4, 3 of 12 cores positive 12/14/06,gleason 3+3=6

I agree with Tamu and Aus that that is statistically the case, but I have to admit that for my own peace of mind I wished we'd done every scan and test imagineable. My husband's only initial indication of a problem was on a DRE the doctor thought he felt a "nodule" on one side - no enlargement, just one side a little bit harder. My husband's PSA was only 2.7 Out of 12 biopsy samples only 2 showed cancer, one only 3% of the cells, the other 4% of the cells. Gleason 3+3=6. Both of the sites of cancer cells were on the opposite side of where they thought things felt funny. The biopsy was done around the 2nd week of August, and initially we were going to put the surgery off until the holidays, because we'd just found out about my dad's cancer and we wanted to deal with that first. Plus we needed to put some money away to cover my husband's time off of work.

But we had many friends, some with relatives who had had prostate cancer, and some other cancers who begged us not to wait - and ended up covering my husband's time off. So we went ahead with the surgery on Oct. 17th. The pathology came back with the gleason still at 6, but the cancer was on both sides of the prostate and in to the margin, up by the bladder. I am so grateful we did not wait 2 more months as we'd planned.

Of course no lymph nodes were taken - there was no indication that was necessary. Thankfully the seminal vesicles were clear. We will get his PSA results Tuesday the 16th. I'm praying that this time he will fall in the statistics he SHOULD fall in to, because so far he hasn't.

I'm a little more paranoid about this because my dad is dying of cancer, in part because tests that should have been done weren't - purely negligence on the Dr.s part, and ignorance on ours. From now on I'll probably err on the side of "overkill" - but then I'll only have to live with the regret of money spent, rather than with the regret of a life ended too quickly.

Just something to think about -

bec

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husband Jeff 45 years old, diagnosed 8/25/06
PSA 2.1, 2 of 12 samples at 3% & 4%, involving 1 side of prostate
Gleason 3+3=6 in both samples
laparoscopic radical prost. 10/17/06
cancer in both sides of prostate, positive in one area of margin
first PSA in 1/2007