12/24/04
I thought my journey with prostrate cancer (PC) and my treatment my help someone with there decisions that they will make should they find out they have the condition. Ill give you an order of events as they happened to me and what my choices where:
First a little about me: White male, 44yo, very healthy, feeling great.
1. Early this summer I had a physical and received a PSA score of 4.9 and my doctor suggested I see a urologist. 0 to 4 is normal so I wasn’t much out of the normal range.
From 4 to about 10 is elevated and higher then 10 is high. This is a very controversial test though. Many people said don’t worry about it. I was to young to have PC and my score should just be used as a base line for further tests.
2. Early fall for some reason I went and saw the urologist. He did the regular exam. He said if he hadn’t seen the PSA score he would have sent me home and told me just to have my regular physicals. But because he had seen my PSA scores he was a little more aggressive with his finger in my ass felling my prostrate. He still couldn’t tell if he felt anything and suggested I get a biopsy anyway.
3. I had the biopsy and the results where positive for PC. 20% of the biopsy was cancerous., with a Gleason score of 3+3.
The biopsy is done by shooting a needle through your colon into your prostrate at 12 different locations. On a 1 to 10 scale the pain is about a 4 or 5 and only that probably because you have someone up your ass which in itself is uncomfortable.
The Gleason score is what tells how aggressive your cancer is to some degree. It has to do with how deformed the cells are. Remember this though; prostrate cancer is very slow growing.
4. No came the hard part. What to do. The urologist immediately suggested surgery because I was young and healthy. He told me the various techniques, open surgery (hands in) and robotic surgery, (no hands in) which is less invasive and apparently more successful at reducing the problems that can occur from having your prostrate removed. i.e. impotence and continence. They also do a nerve sparing technique so you can still get it up. He also told me of the other options i.e. a.) Radiation seeding, b.) Radiation therapy, c.) Freezing, d.) Hormone therapy and e.) Doing nothing.
The older you are the more options you have depending on how you look at it. Most people are old when they are diagnosed with PC. The older you are the likelihood is that you will die from something else other then PC because it is slow growing.
From what I found out radiation therapy and removal have about the same success rate at 15 years out. I was so young and healthy, my PC found early that removal was best because this could provide a cure. I opted for the robotic surgery.
4. I sit here at home writing this two days after my surgery. I am uncomfortable and in some pain but not enough for me to take anything for it. I will tonight as it helps me sleep. It feels like I pulled some serious muscles doing some crunches. Pain level at about 4 or 5 again. The pain actually come from having gas. I have 5 small pencil size holes in my gut at the belly button level (this is where the camera and robotic arms are placed) and a catheter in my penis. It will be there for about a week. As for continence I wont know till it is removed. As for getting it up, I wont know that either till the catheter is removed and I can spend 30 minutes in the bathroom enjoying myself. Ill let you know how it turns out.
Let me know if this has been helpful to anyone. I pretty much went into this blind.
Ill keep you updated as it goes I guess.
Good luck to anyone with PC.
From what I have been told it is too early to tell and things should get better. My Dr. told me it could take two to four months. Best of luck on your recovery. Regards, Mike