Question:
JamesWv,
Well you are certainly in my thoughts. I applaud your positive thinking! My father seemed to reserve himself to that early on with ihs diagnosis. He would fight whatever they gave him for his test results, so it didn't matter as he said what the results where he was going to "battle this thing". I think that's whats carried him so well so far with his recovery. I wish you the best of luck with your results today. Keep us posted!
Answer:
My husband was dx in feb. 2002 with a PSA of 6400 off the charts. he was 51. Mandatory testing for men should start at 40! It's not just the medical you need to ask questions about, its also the emotional and mental stress it will put on you and your family. By the time my hubby was dx the cancer had already matastized to his bones. The gave him Caxodex ( a female hormone) to shut is prostate down. Chemical casteration. and Lupron shots every for months, He had gone through surgeries to remove tumors, radiation to nearly every part of his body, mess ups with wrong medications for pain. the depression of losing his ability to preform sexually and having his independence ripped from him. He suffered for 3 years, and spent the last 6 months bedridden and going blind He had a tumor pressing in on his brain.
It was the most heartbreaking 3 years I have ever lived. He passed June 2nd. 2005 I am writting this for the simple reason to get men's attention to take care of themselves. You don't like the test ? get over it! My husband waited to long and paid the ultimate price , death!
Answer:
God blees you queenmo1 and comfort you in your recent loss.
I do consider myself very lucky - there was nothing telling me to get a PSA at age 48 other than it was on the list of tests my employer would cover. I have a head start on fighting something that I could easily have not found for 2 more years.
When I was telling me co-workers of my positive biopsy this morning I tried to stress getting a PSA done.
Maybe there should be a baseline PSA done at age 40 and if there's nothing suspicious and no family history not repeating it until 45. With 10% of PC occuring in men <50 there should be something to at least initially screen this population.
Answer:
Hi James--I was 55 at time of diagnosis--PSA of 6.0. Only one option was discussed with my wife and me initially---surgery including all nerves around the prostate. The diagosing urologist performs about 20 of these type surgeries a year.We thus left thinking no other options existed, thought about it, started researching. Ended up in consultation with an oncologist---he was very helpful talking about seed implants etc but based on my results, encouraged me to go the surgery route for the best possible and long term results. We ended up going to Houston for more consultation with a urologist who is a known specialist in prostate surgery. That is where we had the surgery performed---he used a nerve sparing technique which gave me some retention of quality of life and the results have been excellent--her performs about 300 of these surgeries a year.
Answer:
dmoudy - thanks again. I don't mean to have 2 threads discussing the same thing, but I mentioned in my post-diagnosis thread that there is a line in my pathology report on one sample saying that perineural involvement is present - so at least that nerve bundle will have to go (or so it seems).