I had 3 tattoos for ART with IGRT/IMRT. RO said I did not need anything else. Must be a little easier with no prostate to aim at and no high dosage treatments....
One of my sons was a Green Beret officer and is the guy I want next to me when the world goes to hell. However, if I see him with a hammer or screwdriver, I have to follow him to make sure he doesn’t...
BD - sounds like you are back among the living now. Those odd feelings, aches, etc go on for a while but fade away. Same with things like wondering how long you can go on a road trip before nature...
Approx 10 days after RALP is what my urologist recommends for catheter removal. Of course, I immediately asked why so long since I read of people at 5-7 days. They said every doctor is different, 10...
BD - The recovery is tougher than advertised from my experience but you are young and should snap back quicker so hang in there, first three days home are the toughest. While doctor’s instructions...
Good news indeed. Duke is probably the better place for your evaluation and treatment recommendations. After that, it depends on what treatment(s) you end up considering. You may find with standard...
From an AUS Prostate Cancer publication: https://www.prostate.org.au/media/612113/PSA-Testing-Guidelines.pdf Couple of quotes: "For those who decide to have prostate cancer tests, the general...
Copy/Paste into your browser. I could not get a clickable link to work: https://www.jefferson.edu/about/news-and-events/2020/2/statins-may-lower-mortality-in-high-risk-prostate-cancer-patients.html...
Don’t get better than that... Enjoy the moment and work on your recovery for your three month visit....
They take the leftover donut holes and tie them up to make fish nets......
Only a few hits but try TULSA-PRO. You will get lots more info with internet searches....
Just another study to mess with our minds and undermine the foundation of our assumptions. If my PSA was 20, I would get tested at another lab and see if it drops to 19 so I could feel better :-)...
PET/CT scans with the normal contrast agents for other cancers does not work for prostate cancer and have not been approved. There have been special radioactive agents developed (ie: Auxium) that do...
Don’t jump to conclusions about Lupron quite yet. You will need to visit the doctors and see what they propose. May not be done until you make a decision or may be done in a different manner or may...
AS is probably not the best idea from what I have read with a couple of high percentage 3+4’s. The good news is probably any treatment should provide good results for eliminating the problem so you...
Seems similar to my biopsy pathology, most of the bad stuff was on one side and had some cores with high percentages. The high percentage of pattern 4 just means the core got a good sample in a bad...
Newbie - Take a look at the 2nd sticky note on the forum home page titled "Long-Running Threads and Prostate Cancer Abbreviations" for some help with abbreviations. It does not have all of them but...
If the MRI shows lesion(s) and location then that is pretty good data to work from. If it doesn’t, it does not mean as much since a lesion can be there but not detectable by MRI. A MRI can also...
I agree with JNF & Paul, get a few more 3 month values and see where it is going. My guess is your oncologist will suggest that. No sense hiding a rise with more ADT at this point since you would...
JNF - as a side note, one thing I figured out is that there are exceptions to generalized Medicare rules as MN and few other states have waivers from the federal requirements and offer different...
Newbie - You have had a couple of long threads that covered a lot. Did you ever get an MRI done during this process that showed any lesions? You are pretty much stuck with a Gleason 7 of which the...
Dave - Great to hear that things are lining up for you. I am glad you are feeling some relief from this process starting to gel and you should find that a plan will start coming together on Wednesday...
Age 21 in 1973-1974 was a pretty dam good time. War was over, music was great, knew I was going to graduate engineering school, no job or family to worry about yet, no idea what PCa was....
JNF - Great summary. It reminds of "accredited by" and"certified by" that you run into all the time in business. It can be helpful but does not guarantee anything. At least they all provide a...
A link that is a decent explanation: https://www.verywellhealth.com/primary-secondary-tertiary-and-quaternary-care-2615354 Just depends on how sick you are I guess....
Ask away, there are no stupid questions as they say.... https://www.cancer.gov/research/nci-role/cancer-centers/find This is not an exhaustive list, there other good places that are not on the list....
This is where the 3 month PSA will tell the story assuming that a 6 week PSA is not stupid high. Hershey - It is best to fully recover from surgery, especially any incontinence issues, before hitting...
Djin, MM - I read his signature over a number of times. I think he might have been saying “One positive (thing), (all) 10 lymph nodes removed were all clear”. I may be wrong but got the impression...
Hersheybar - Not the best news but you already know that. I had to wait for the 2nd expert opinion to get my G9 upgrade. I was 10 years older and it does not sound any better at 66 so I can imagine...
BD - I was a recently retired 66 for my surgery so my workout recovery may not have anything in common with a youngster :-) Surgery was on Nov 6th and I started working out again after New Years (2...
Dave - Sorry to hear that your prostate cancer is misbehaving. I think you will find some folks here that have been where you are and still winning the fight, some for a really long time as...
We were so focused on keeping things antiseptic that switching bags was a carefully planned event each morning and evening. Probably did not make a difference but my wife ran the cleaning operation...
Welcome back BD. The only thing I recall to do in the weeks prior to surgery are the Kegel exercises and making sure your liquid intake, diet, and pooping schedule are working well together with...
Could you get your regular doctor to refer you since they are usually the gatekeeper in managed care? The actual treatment usually requires some special approval and justification but getting an...
There are machines in the 7T-10.5T range (University of MN has 10.5T in 2018) but I doubt that they are used for prostates, mainly brain research. The 3T units are probably the only ones you will...
Yeah, I was recovering from surgery and thinking I had turned the corner then got slapped back down again. The progression was biopsy 4+3, removed prostate 4+3+tertiary 5, Epstein 4+5. The difference...
Sorry to hear you joined the brotherhood. No matter how many knowledgeable brothers you have joined, it is your cancer and unique to you so take all the recommendations and opinions in stride. You...
With your Dad and Mom’s situation (strong family history), I think I would be inclined to have a biopsy for peace of mind with all the other crazy data that is not telling you much. Hopefully you...
It seems that they should be looking at doing scans prior to getting to this point as well. The issue with insurance companies denying MRI’s prior to biopsy does not make sense to me. A standard...
Agreed, he should just proceed in a manner that he is comfortable with based on his recovery and recommendations from his doctors. While keeping after it, he also needs to take his time and get ready...
The grey area between ART and SRT relative to post-op time and PSA is subject to some debate but certainly a 2 month post-op PSA in the whole digits (1,2,3) is too high and the concept of "early"...
lowandslow - Nice results, good job staying after it. More low and slow to look forward to....
I don’t see how John can avoid ADT with 2 month PSA stabilizing around 2.57 and then going with ART/SRT as soon as he is physically up for it. My understanding is ADT can be avoided when the post-op...
Sorry John, I misread your first post and signature. Your PSA at 10 days post-op was 3.9, down from 12.2 pre-surgery, then 2.20 on Jan 16th. Your 3 month PSA (Feb) will be the key value before making...
I agree with Stephen, if your PSA is truly up to 3.9 post-op, a scan might give you something to aim at. ADT might be premature until a scan is done. There is clearly something else going on that...
That is a good example of a study that is probably misleading and repeated many times. There is no accounting of people who die of medical errors so some researchers try to extrapolate the value from...
Logo is an acquired taste...he is not mad at you...you can find justification for any position if you look long enough...always keep your father in mind...mumbo out...
FP - Did you leave out the 10/14/19 PSA = 0.06 in your signature? Also the signature dates do not agree with your first post's dates? Look at my signature for my journey that has some similarities...
Keep in mind that IGRT/IMRT and SBRT are most current forms of radiation treatment and have the most precision/accuracy of the beam. I believe 3DCRT is older technology with less control....
I have no knowledge of 3dcrt but can search the internet. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4865138 IMRT is considered a better choice for PCa to minimize side effects. Primary radiation...