Welcome new Friend- hopeful and optimistic

Welcome to HW, thanks for joining us. Would you be willing to share the details of your journey so far, if you have Prostate Cancer? We usually introduce ourselves with a little detail of what we are experiencing. The reason I ask is you write as if you have a lot of experience with the disease.

In another thread, hopeful and optimistic writes for the first time, saying:

viv

Great news that the gleason was downgraded to a 6.

UCLA is a center of excellence.

The results of the biopsy , the gleason score and involvement of the cancer is the critical information to be used for treatment decision.

The PSA is an indicator only, and other factors such as infection, sex , strenuous exercise such as bike riding, hard stool, etc may cause the PSA to rise.

The size of the prostate, influences the PSA. PSA is higher with larger prostates. What is the prostate size.

A criteria for for low, low risk Active Surveillance is two cores or less, Gleason 6, less than 50 percent involvement in any one core and PSA 10 or less.

You husband appears to have indolent cancer, that is not likely to spread and is an excellent candidate for "Active Surveillance with deferred treatment, if necessary".

You and your doctor may consider another biopsy, MRI guided, as the diagnostic test that will confirm the previous results and determine where you stand.

Hopeful,
Welcome and what a great post.
Sounds like you are doing great on AS and all the best for your next biopsy in June – here’s hoping you remain in the ‘AS’ group for a very long and healthy life.
All the best to you!
Susan
x

Hopeful,
please continue updating your status. We need more examples of posters who were successful with AS for the new guys visiting us.
Continued good luck.
JohnT

Dear Donald,

I've heard only good things about Dr. Menon. He is a world class surgeon. With your age and having an expert surgeon, you will do fine........best luck

At that time the urologist that did the biopsy told me that there might be a one percent chance that the cancer left the prostate, and that I was an excellent candidate for every treatment type. He said that they "all want you, you are an ideal patient"...His DRE showed that my prostate was small, and normal.

Well, about a week or two after the biopsy I saw this R.O. He was there with two interns. He wanted to do a DRE which I did not understand at the time, and still do not. He said my prostate had bumps.

He told me that there was a 50 percent chance that the cancer had escaped the prostate. (not one percent as the urologist stated) ....at that time I knew that one of them was out of his mind.

He wanted me to get a bone scan. The American Urological Association does not recommend a bone scan for those with Gleason less than 8, mine was 6.

He wanted me to get an MRI at his hospital.

He wanted me to have two radiation treatments for this low level cancer, Bracky and IMRT...which is not appropriate since any possible side effects are multiplied with more than one treatment type, and is not appropriate for a low level cancer.

I asked him how long I would have to make a decision.....he told me 8 weeks.

The consult with this R. O. lasted an hour and a half.
......................................

My lady friend is an advanced practice nurse who has a masters in oncology, ( her practice was different at the time). Anyway she found a source on line; the American Urological Association listed a publication their recommendations for treatment.....no bone scan under gleason 8.

I had another appointment scheduled with a world class surgeon at a major medical center two week in the future.......she advise me not to do any of the tests that the R.O. recommended since each institution likes to do their own.

I visited this surgeon, with a list of questions mostly directed at surgery.

Sat down with the doc...he asked me what was happening. Basically, I spent maybe 4 to 6 minutes at most telling him the above....I tend to talk some. Well he said to me, "my turn now" which is a polite way of saying shut up, which I did.

He spent 3 or 4 minutes telling me that I was a candidate for active surveillance, since he believe that my cancer was indolent, not likely to spread.....and he got up to leave, but he wanted me to have another test an MRI with a Spectroscopy to see if there is extracapsular extension, etc.

Now I had all these questions that wanted to ask him about surgery and he was walking out. ...As he was walking out I asked him how many surgeries that he did at that point.....he stopped walking out, looked up the air, answered with a number, then said " I am a World Class Surgeon, but you don't need surgery" and then continued to walk, leaving me sitting in a chair.

Well, I got up went to my car....and tears of relief came out of my eyes.

This was the best doctor visit that I have ever had.

H and O, welcome, Love stories like yours, thanks for sharing…...