42 & PC?

I can relate somewhat to what you are going through. I am 38 years old. My father died of prostate cancer 10 years ago at age 56. I had an irregular digital exam which led to a biopsy showing cancer in one out of 10 samples. I feel quite lucky to have gotten this early. I am having robotic surgery on this Wednesday. While I am not excited about incontinence or ed I do not want the cancer in my body. My urologist said that ultimately the best day to have the surgery is the day before it leaves the prostate. But since there is no way to know this why wait. He basically said if it were him he would have it removed as soon as possible. Why chance it? I would not want to take the small chance that it may leave my prostate when I could have had it taken out at an earlier date. I know i is a tough decision but you have come the right place. This forum is great and very encouraging. I have only posted a few times, but have read many. I will post next week and let you know how the whole thing goes.

PSA .2
Gleason 3 +3
1 out of 10 samples positive
surgery this wednesday
awesome wife
beautiful 3 year old girl
cool dog

jon h .welcome to the club no on wants to be in,this is only MY opinion ,you are so doing the right thing i have  great wife two dogs and kids as well,let me just say there is a huge advantage to getting this done early you will be much more likely to regain everything in a shorter time with significantly better results i did ....email me if you want,where are you going for surgery ? good luck your gonna be fine......dirt

Mike F, glad you made it through that biopsy, I am assuming your first. The bleeding down there the first time is a bit scary and unsettling, even when you have been told its normal. Sounds encouraging also on the ultrasound, my first biopsy was like that, a year or so later, the 2nd one came up no cancer, but ultrasound showed suspicious area, and 6-8 weeks later, on #3, it hit pay dirt. Hopefully you come up clean. Most mend pretty fast from the biopsy, gross and unpleasant ,but needed to know for sure. Be hoping for the best for you.

David in SC

DJ, after my first sit down on the toilet a few hours back, the mere thought of what might await me in my first ejaculate may be enough to keep "Mini-me" soft for weeks to come

Unrelated (thank heavens) question: How many cores are harvested during a typical biopsy? It seems the standard is 12 from what I've read here but I could have sworn I counted 16 "clicks". Though, admittedly, I had other things I was concentrating on!

All, thanks again for your sage advice, especially those who warned me not to get ahead of myself before a dx. I received my results today and, thank God, I'm clean. Of course, with my family history it will warrant additional monitoring but I can breathe a sigh of relief for today.

Please accept my profound gratitude for your kind words. I wish all of you well; you will be in my prayers!

Mike,
Congrats on the news!! Too bad you had to go through the biopsy, at least you have piece of mind. When I had mine done I counted every snap because I wanted to know the second it was over...not fun.

Best of luck!

One reference all who face PC should see and read in detail is "Quality of Life and Satisfaction with Outcome among Prostate-Cancer Survivors", March 20, 2008, New England Journal of Medicine.  http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/358/12/1250  This paper compares and contrasts outcomes for most of the possible treatments.

As someone above mentioned, all if the treatments have potential impact on the three biggest side effects: Bowel/Rectal, Urinary/Incontinence, and Sexual performance.  That said, its also very hard to find significant differences in outcome for the primary effect -- i.e. survival.

Mike, Glad your biopsy came out clean.