New member age old problem Prostate Cancer?

I'm new to this forum and to the illness. Psa jumped last year to 4.65 doc MD felt little firmness on right side.
off to the urologist, yup we'll drill 15 to 20 core, anestesia , need driver. you may puke. bleed for a few weeks, infection only danger.

so yeeeek, and now it's next year, PSA 4.5 no change. prostate still a little firm on the right, no nodules. MD says we must do something. so sonagram no biopsy Monday. High tech color. He says 25% score a cancer hit on a 12 core and a little higher 33% on a 25 core. But more bleeding for longer? Ummmmm!

Statistics are bad, no extended life span? heart disease is my families way to go and I am diabetic, High BP, Extreme Tryglicerides. all under medications.

A Cancer outlook will change ones lifes outlook. panic mode, valium express.

Without hosp sedation, I heard very painful. In fact I interviewed patients of local urology center and they said 8 on the 1 to 10 scale. and the doc says aww, no pain at all. Another friend had 2 biopsies and now says never again???
He'll take what life give him?

I interview guys at the senior center, one 85. 1st diagnosed at 65. now prostate cancer has got his bladder and he is moving real slow. another went to bone at 75. I'd prefer christopher colt solution.

Arkansas does IV sedation? Normal mode. Here in Calif Medicare will not pay, office procedure. just Lidocain used.
and a valium to get ya there.

Lets see impotence about 75%, incontinence about 40% depending what survey.

So I guess I am watchful waiting even before the biopsy????
Any comments out there? Gotta be a lot of old geezers in the same boat?

Berdoo, yes your post is a bit difficult to understand.

First off, my husband had two biopsies before they found the cancer. While not the most comfortable thing in the world, for him it was not painful just uncomfortable. Our doctor only used lidocaine and a valium-type prescription before and my husband had no problems. The biopsy is the only way to get your Gleason numbers which are critical to make a treatment decision. Sounds like you had a color Doppler sonogram which seems to confirm you have PCa. Now, you need to find out how aggressive it is which would be done by taking samples from the prostate (biopsy).

You talk about incontinence and Ed and assume you are referring to surgery. Surgery can definitely cause either or both of these conditions, as can radiation treatment.

If you were to ask my opinion, I would counsel having a biopsy so that you know what you are dealing with here. Deciding not to treat because of fear of the biopsy is not a smart decision. Bleeding from the biopsy is minimal and I don't remember my husband bleeding at all afterwards. You would be told not to engage in sexual activity for a week or so to allow the prostate to heal from the biopsy.

Dear Berdoo:

Sounds like you are in a bit of a panic on this...calm down.  Even if you have PCa it is likely curable and you will probably die of something else.  Your PSA is relatively low but you do need to find out what you are dealing with.

We have had many threads on biopsies and the pain (or not) assoicated with them.  For some men it is no big deal and for others it is excruciating.  Mine was done under IV anesthesia (think colonoscopy) and was no problem.  My doc does it that way because he takes lots of cores, does not believe in causing his patients unnecessary pain and want to take his time doing it right rather than having a squirming patient wanting it over with.

My advice is to get the biopsy ASAP...then you know what your have.  Then, come back here with your stats and you will get lots of advice and support re next steps.

Tudpock

Berdoo Man -- the thought of the biopsy terrified me and i had more than a month to think about it. i thought i could handle a cancer diagnosis better than the the biopsy. that was one of the first things i was wrong about.

my doctor was also glib about sedation so i told him to refer me to someone else because a valium wasn't going to cut it for me. i was convinced i needed to be knocked out. my hands had broken out in a rash and i could tell i was freaking my friends out as i went on and on about my fear of the biopsy. after a month of mental torture my doctor said he could use IV sedation and my insurance would cover it. man was i pissed!

i had my biopsy 1.5 weeks ago. the doctor used IV demerol/versed but he administered it very lightly. i felt at the time that he tricked me. I needed to be knocked out! my wife was in the room with me. she said: "i'm not going to let them torture you. the biopsy won't begin until you are ready. if you don't want to proceed we will leave right now."

the doctor, his assistant and my wife looked at me. my wife was kneeling next to me holding my hand. i was able to punch through the fear. i stole a line from gary gilmore and said: "let's do it!".

the bottom line is the worst thing about the biopsy for me was the fear. the procedure just wasn't that bad and it was over quickly. the medication did help relax me and i think that's important. my buddy had his biopsy two days ago and he said it wasn't that bad, tho he did pass out that night at home and spent most of the night at the ER. they rushed him out of there after the biopsy. my doctor eased me out and made me drink a coke to get my blood sugar up....and i think that was the difference. i'd take a coke or two with me if i were you.

here's the link to an article that i found early on regarding one man's fear and experience with prostate biopsy. his experience mirrors mine and i'll go one better and say that despite my irrational fear i probably would have done fine with just the valium.

http://blogs.marke***ch.com/greenberg/2008/03/weekend-special-my-prostate-biopsy/

BTW, greenberg is a guy i respect and when i found his column i was surprised to see him writing about prostate biopsy instead of the stock market and felt like he wrote it for me.

hang in there, brother. i am just a step ahead of you and i know what you are going through. let me know if there's anything i can do to help.

ed r.

Post Edited (F8) : 2/13/2010 1:06:52 PM (GMT-7)

Hello and welcome to HW.

Like some of the others, your post sounds a bit confused, you never stated your age so hard to make a reference, you had one biopsy already? But then you write as if you haven't. I had 3 over 18 month period, two without any pain med - not too bad, and one with pain med - that one actually hurt me the most. Real sensitive to pain, but having said that, I didn't find any of them that painful.

You might want to repost and clarify a few points, perhaps some anger or fear was expressed, and we would all understand that part, been there done that.

We are here to help you.

David in SC

Biopsy thoughts -

I had just turned 56, had no symptoms, no issues, just a 7.4 PSA.

I had no clue what to expect for my biopsy. It was delayed a couple of weeks because they had to re-run my blood work. I asked, and was told I could drive myself home. That seemed enough at the time.

They had me take a series of antibiotics the days before, and for a few days after.

In fact, it was a local affair, a couple of shots to numb the area, then the probe was put in. It was more of a surprise that it actually went in than pain. They didn't tell me how many cores were to be taken, or perhaps I didn't ask, but they did 12. Once the first one was done, I relaxed a bit, and the rest were no worse than the DRE. I would not call it pain as much as extreme annoyance.

The nurse seemed quite happy that I was a good patient, and said so, making me believe that not everyone supports it well, but if I had to do it again, I would not consider it a big deal. But since mr. DaVinci did his work, I don't expect to be in that position again.

From walking in the office until all finished took perhaps an hour.

I drove myself home, cleaned up a bit (there was lubricating gel everywhere), and spent the rest of the day at the office.

Over the few days after, I was a bit sore, and sitting was not my preferred position. For several weeks I had some rectal bleeding, and they also upset my 'roids, but that cleared up. There was blood in semen for a few days, but that also cleared. I did not see any visible blood in urine.

Except for the abysmal report, which kept me awake nights and sent me down the road to DaVinci, it was a non-event.

By the way, Welcome to the site. As you can see, we will discuss things here in about as brutal honesty as you can get.

Post Edited (142) : 2/13/2010 12:18:16 PM (GMT-7)